gauging

let me see your eyes

you are a teacher

even when you don’t mean to be

let me see your eyes

your love is plain

even when you can’t see it

let me see your eyes

their searching

tells the whole story

about your everything

how vulnerable it is

being witnessed existing

i go through my days

repeating the same thing

“yes, you are”

to those eyes

whose desperation

is the brimming

of self evidence

that your heart keeps

to you i say:

do not search

love comes to you

my sweet lost child

in the dark wood

when the moon

tugs your eyes

that’s what it means

when they say

you are the stars

caught looking

it’s not poetic

it’s the subtlety

of a knife’s edge

a cut so close to home

that it hurts

and we’ve learned

to hide those pangs

at the foot of our fears

our lamps cast downward

the pain of distance

look at the moon

when you do, ask:

who’s looking, and whose?

let me see your eyes

i’ll tell you

yes you are that

and that is you

there are no secrets

in this palace

let me see your eyes

teach me how

to look like yours