Eyes by Alex Diederich

HONORABLE MENTION

With these eyes

I feel oceans run warm, tides breaking

waves upon my skin,

Only rearing its seafoam silver face

behind quietly closed doors.

I watch a screen flickering between static

and a thousand nameless faces,

Catch glimpses of other lives, other times,

and occasionally the dark shadow reflected just behind.

I peer endlessly through panes of crystal

in stunning color and array.

Yet while the sunlight streaming in is cheerful,

I look down and see only cloud and sky.

I read a hundred words in a hundred different places,

each more morbid than the last,

And still, remain detached, as if it all goes away

the moment my eyelids close.

I gaze on hollow sights among the city’s blinding lights,

and at times it feels as though the clock has stopped.

But at last, as I set down to sleep, and can hear

only the buzzing of lonely flies,

I lay and reconcile with the mind behind the eyes.