I was bearded with words.

Prepositions curled around

my mouth, and below

my chin participles

dangled.

I reveled in sideburns Whitmanesque,

and all admired the love-letter

moustaches, ironically drooping

over a hate-mail

goatee.

But the verbose foliage scrawled

along my jaw bored you.

With an eraser I shaved,

watching adjectives

scatter

and nouns pile below me

in the basin. Above

the wordy waste I stared

at the mirror, bald-faced and

mute.