For Naomi Lazard Sometimes I can't wait until I look like Nadezhda Mandelstam. -- Naomi Lazard My friends are tired. The ones who are married are tired of being married. The ones who are single are tired of being single. They look at their wrinkles. The ones who are single attribute their wrinkles to being single. The ones who are married attribute their wrinkles to being married. They have very few wrinkles. Even taken together, they have very few wrinkles. But I cannot persuade them to look at their wrinkles collectively. & I cannot persuade them that being married or being single has nothing to do with wrinkles. Each one sees a deep & bitter groove, a San Andreas fault across her forehead. "It is only a matter of time before the earthquake." They trade the names of plastic surgeons like recipes. My friends are tired. The ones who have children are tired of having children. The ones who are childless are tired of being childless. They love their wrinkles. If only their were deeper they could hide. Sometimes I think (but do not dare to tell them) that when the face is left alone to dig its grave, the soul is grateful & rolls in.