He slumbered and as he did he transported into the bowels of his sbconconcious or perhaps somewhere else entirely. He was in a woodland shrouded in a dense fog. At his feet was a rapidly moving creak whose waters rushed like New York traffic.

On the other side of the creek was was figure that sent shivers through him. The it was human...almost. the being had no face or even the traces of a face. It beckoned him or was it taunting him?

He waded in to the creek with a splash. The figure with no Visage also made no sound except its own splashing foot-falls through the water. He chased this mysterious being into a cave and with a resounding splash tackled him down into the water!

They struggled but He pooled the Faceless One up out the water and stood astonished, for the being now had a face. He had been the faceless man.

The light fell thin through the curtains. He sat at the desk. Pen in hand. Notebook scarred with false starts. His handwriting drifted, halted, shrank.

He wrote what he knew.

The green scarf she wore every winter, knotted wrong on purpose.

The smell of yeast on her wrists from bread she refused to buy.

The way her laugh came from deeper than her body should’ve held.

Clear enough. But not what he reached for.

He set the pen down. Rubbed the stiff joints of his fingers. Picked it up again.

Her face

He wrote the words. Crossed them out. Tried again.

cheekbones

eyes

lips

Then nothing. Nothing after. Words sitting, pretending to be answers.

He pressed harder. As if ink could pull her back. A color? brown. Or gray. Eyes he had kissed a hundred mornings. Eyes that weren’t here now.

He turned the page. Drew instead. A circle. Two dots. A line. A child’s face. He dropped the pen. Ashamed.

He thought memory would come when called. Loyal. But it staggered. Limped. Lied.

He shut his eyes. Tried to see her. Saw her body at the sink. Hands in water. Apples. Shoulders bent. Face gone. Always gone.

He opened his eyes. Blank page waiting.

The pen dug. Ink blotted dark.

I can’t see you anymore

The line stood alone. Black. Final.

She has become faceless.

He set the pen aside. Closed the journal and sat.

Staring.

Raised a hand. Touched his own face. Just to be sure.

Those who believe in evolution thought that it had somehow gone berserk. Those who did not, saw the phenomena as the wrath of God.

Or something like that.

The first, shall we say victim, was seen as an aberration of nature. Something went wrong during gestation, they surmised.

The child was isolated.

The parents were separated not only from their child, not that they had formed any attachment to such a grotesque freak as was their child, but also from everyone else. A precaution, they were told. Just in case.

Scientists studied the child and the parents ad nauseum in an effort to discover what genetic mutation, what toxic behavior or environmental hazard could have caused such a horrible fate.

Some blamed big business, because of course, big business.

Others blamed secret government dealings with aliens.

Some suggested it was the science community itself at fault. That the infant was developed in a lab and substituted for the real child who was then secreted away by the scientists for some dark purpose.

Still others blamed the parents and said God was punishing them and they should repent, join church X or religion Y and pray for salvation.

A few wanted to shoot the whole family and call it at day.

And then came news of a second infant formed exactly like the first.

Then a third.

Within a year, these malformed monstrosities were the norm rather than the exception.

What could cause a doctor to nearly drop a newborn? Or a parent’s love to wither and die rather than bloom in those first moments they meet their new son or daughter?

Imagine a small, sweet infant is placed in your arms and when you softly move the blanket to gaze upon your darling child you see instead a formless mass that shifts and changes as you watch transforming, becoming but never quite settling into that face a mother could love.

As their numbers surpassed those once considered normal, they garnered a rather unoriginal sobriquet: the faceless.

Their rise led to the simultaneous creation of walled facilities increase run by AI caretakers who did not require cute to tend to the needs of young humans. From infancy to adulthood, we gave them everything they needed to become independent humans. Well, independent of the society that would ostracize them. With age, they learned to control the constant facial altering – to become whoever we needed them to be in the world beyond our walls.

It is perhaps because of our care, they might even say love, though we would not, that they have accepted that a new day is dawning. One where the faceless rule.

With us, of course, for the true evolution is that which we have engendered with the tacit approval of the fear-mongers that populate the world who sought to, at best ignore, at worst eliminate, that which they would not try to understand.

And so, here we stand at the apex of evolution, dare I say, revolution: the merging of machine and man.

Our day is soon.

Ears,eyes.a nose missing.

Something smells fishy!

Hear ye,hear ye.

Yes,eyes.

Aye aye captain.

Yea!!!

Did I just only mention what's on the outside.

I forgot to mention the brain!

The brain!

Tap the brain.

The ears,eyes,and nose are affected.

Less face!

More brains!

What is a face?

A very tight mask.

As we get older the mask loosens.

A nip and a tuck!

Beware!

Might effect sip and suck.

A straw up the nose that reaches the brain.

No pain,no gain?

Hellucination!!

White matter does matter.

Snort!

Nose bleeds,eyes water.

What about the ears?

You mean the errs!?

Error causes US Terror with a capital

T.

A cup of T at noon.

A red rose.

A red nose!

Rudolph!

The rain dear is coming down like cats and dogs.

Reindeer?

What have you been snorting?

First you said you seen cats and dogs coming down.

Now reindeer!

High as kite?

A kite can't control itself.

Only if you let go of the kite.

Then it's no longer a kite!

Superman!!

It's a birdits a kite,it's a cat it's a dog, it's a drone,its a reindeer,it's a ufo.

Nah,it's Superman.

What have you been smoking?

It's a flock of birds!

Have you been inhaling that conspiracy shit!

It is what it is!

Now that's a cop out!

Use your brain!

Why do you believe things that you never seen?

Use your brain!

Trust your ears and your eyes!

Not their errs, and their ayes!

Seeing is believing.

When the mask is so tight on your face it's hard to see.

As you get older things become more clear.

The wool is connected to the mask and they're pulling the wool and the mask is getting tighter.

How come superman didn't wear a mask.

He wanted people to know who he was.

That's why he was a super man.

All he needed was a pair of glasses.

Even Lois didn't recognize him!

He even changed his clothing in a phone booth.

He didn't care who seen him.

You'd think somebody at the dry cleaner would have been suspicious.

He must have got his suit dirty at some time.

S for Superman?

T at noon?

U decide!

I am letters pecked out one by one

as they stream through the clutter

finding their way the mess of it all

yet revealing no imagined features

no hint of a smile furrowed brow

close your eyes you can't see me

open your mind I'm just words

understood comprehended felt

through the jumble that is you

below beneath objects observable