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Posts Tagged ‘eyes’

Seeing Clearly

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 18, 2021| 4 Comments »


Forgive me for wanting to fix you.
As if we could be anything
but who we are.
 
Forgive me for every time
I have looked at you with hawkish eyes,
eyes with talons, eyes that hunt.
 
Forgive me for thinking I know
what you need, for thinking I am right.
For scrutinizing, for judging,
 
for using my gaze to build walls.
I want to look at you with eyes
as soft as the light in the field after dawn.
 
Want to meet you with eyes
as benevolent as rain. Want to see you
with eyes as open as sky, open as innocence.
 
Want to see myself this way, too—
then, it is easier to soften, to lean in, to bloom.
This is how I want to look at you—
 
not with eyes that fix, but eyes
that dismantle defensiveness,
eyes that say let us meet in our flawedness,
 
eyes unstintingly generous,
a gaze that says you are safe with me,
a gaze born of humility, a gaze made of wings.

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Repechage

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on February 9, 2018| Leave a Comment »

 

 

 

Before on guard,

you meet your opponent

on the strip

without your mask

and hold your sword

between your eyes—

a salute—before

you drop the sword

and don the mask.

 

How much of the match

is fought in the gaze?

There are ways

to attack and riposte

when the body

is achingly still.

 

It’s a glint, a squint,

an unblinking hold.

It’s a stare, a glare,

a flash. I’ve felt it before—

known that it was all over

before it began.

 

But we pull on the mask

anyway, prepare

to engage, though already

we know how this goes—

who wins, and who

walks away wondering

how next time, next time

it could be different.

 

 

 

* Repechage: the competition formula which gives losers of a direct elimination bout a second chance to stay in the competition

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