The Faces of Love

Are there a thousand ways to smile?
What do lovers see that others don’t?
The beauty within, as parents
adore the toothless grins on bulbous heads—
loved even if they had more eyes than two—
the better to see—

or if they were hirsute as wolf or bear,
what does love care
if you are green, or come from planets that orbit
other stars?

Pointless to argue, impossible to explain
the magic of love defies biology and physics—
it is art and science, an enigma, a burden, a gift—

you face your love; you love that face.