I Love Her But She Loves Someone Else

When a man of my age shaves his face in the morning,
who is it stares back and greets him?
The ghost of his father long dead all these years?
Or the boy that he was, still wet in the ears?
Or the terrible sum of all of his fears
In the eyes of this stranger who meets him?
So his glance rarely strays from his chin or his jawline
to face up to the truth of his soul.
It's the eyes he avoids, so afraid to aknowledge
something strange, unexpected, out of control.
There are times when a man needs to brave his reflection
and face what he sees without fear.
It takes a man to accept his mortality
or be surprised by the presence of a tear.
It was only an arrangement, a practical arrangement.
I forgot the first commandment of the realist's handbook.
Don't be fooled by illusions you created yourself
And fall in love with someone when she loves someone else.