Origami (Poetry)

Once smooth, tissue paper skin
shows first one crease and then two more,
faint but slowly deepening,
impressed and following a plan
along familiar folds -
those sharp-edged lines that shape a frown;
a smile's quick puckering; a scowl -
the face reformed with eyes tucked neat
beneath fine-pleated lids.

A sleight of hand all flesh can do -
the craft that turns crisp youth to age
when practise wears it thin.