[585] Eye Level

[585].png

When I was three feet tall,
I remember seeing things
No one else could
And marveling to myself
About this secret world
Below their focus.

They were small like me,
Like the purest source
Of my simple childlike joy,
Like the matters to me
When all the world’s a toy,
They were all I could see.

Above my eyes
So much beyond this world
Lies marvelous and dark.
All the world could
Wonder like a child would,
If we were a quintillion miles tall.

[584] Look

[584].png

Heads looking ahead of them
Or down at the ground
Punctuate the mid-afternoon traffic
With the usual apathetic etiquette,
Expected respect unaffectionate,
But not effectively empty of it.
Every day felt so regular
That we forgot the feeling.

Heads locked and bound
Heads not looking around
Don’t see as a man
Steps out of his car.
Don’t see as a man
Stops dead in his tracks.
His head nods and falls and
His whole body follows.

One head looks down
And falls into feeling
She’s shocked and she’s screaming
And praying for life
And seeking
For breathing
And finding
It leaving.

Another head rises
To hear such a scream,
To see such a scene,
To suddenly speak
And say what it’s seeing.
Another head rises.
Another in silence.
Another, then all of us.

Those who see
Stand still,
Can’t turn their heads away,
Even against
The flashing red and blue
Piercing through
That little illusion we live,
Illuminated.

So we stayed and we waited
Through fear, despair, and dread.
We knew fear long denied;
Ignorance begin to shed.
But let hope be with us yet;
When he was taken, it was said
Someone among us thought they saw
That blessed man turn his head.