Originally written in 1981 or 1982.  Never posted; not certain it has ever been performed.  Significantly revised here.

This is not a face I love
so I’ll gladly give it to you.  

Pull it from my head.
Put it on your own.  
I don’t need another, people would just 
recognize me then, don’t need that.  
Would rather look at them bare
and then scare them away
with my front skull.

Gradations are odious.  
My face is all gradation 
and subtlety and neither
is a thing I love.  
I surrender them
with this new wide smile.

The flesh we devote to expression 
is annoying and extraneous.  
I would gladly dispense with emotions
beyond the largest of them:
ecstasy, terror, rage, despair. 

In the new world
we won’t need subtlety.
In the new world
we’ll stick with ecstasy, terror,
rage, and despair.  These
will be our default settings.
Will guide our appetites.
Will drive our businesses.
Will admonish our gods.
Will break us in.

This is not a face I love.
I’ll gladly give it to you
but you should ask yourself
before you take it:
in this new world
why have a face at all?