The faces we remember...

What do we remember? What are the moments or people that remain after years of living and loving - winning and losing. Perhaps it is different for each of us. I remember faces - eyes mostly. Maybe I think I have seen souls. I don't know.

But I remember the face of every woman I ever loved or made love to. I remember the faces of the women I desired. Some remain fresh, young. Others I have seen since they aged and that is how I remember them now. One face stands out - mostly because it was filled with pain and tragedy. She sat next to me in a university math class eons ago. I didn't know her name - though I could find it.

The last time I saw her when we were still young was in Vancouver, 1971. She was hanging with the band at an outdoor concert. We were far from St. John's and I saw her. She still did not see me.

Then years past and she faded from view. I had forgotten her and then I was back in St. John's hanging out in a favourite pub. A local band had just finished a set. They were the journeymen kind. Around the business, hanging on long after all hope was gone. Playing gigs for cigarettes and booze. She was there then, still with the band. The years had been hard on her and it showed on her face. Her eyes gave her away then. She saw me and remembered my face from the past. She saw I knew her in her devastation and could recall her in her splendour. I saw the look of a drowning person then - slipping away into the undertow.

I never saw her again but she is there now in my memory. Old and young. Hungry for love.