skin deep

a seventy-two-year-old Floridian
struck up a monologue
with me
in a campground bath house

you know you shouldn't use
soap on your face
dries it out
my mother-in-law
never used soap
on her face
and she slathered on
Pond's cold cream
every night
she died at
ninety-two
and her skin was as beautiful
as the day she turned
twenty

i stared down at my
soap dish
my cursory glance
revealed that i had
no moisturizer with me

how can i die at age
ninety-two
with beautiful skin
if i didn't have it
to begin with?

i replied
hmmmm
popped
a zit on my cheek
and left