Poem: Eye Contact

Poetry: Celebrating National Poetry Month

Eye Contact

I don’t always make
eye contact with people.
Not because I’m intimidated
or lack confidence,
but when I peer into their eyes
I’m going to see all the scars
and open wounds they try to hide.

I’ll see their dissatisfaction
with their job, the last
argument they had with
their spouse, the unfulfilled dreams,
their sacrifice,
and
their loneliness.

Because my eyes will uncover
every last secret they hide in
their souls, and I’m sure it’s
impolite to see into
someone like that without
their permission.


For links to poetry prompts, or if you missed out on what I’m doing for National Poetry Month, check out the first post here.

 

To end each post, there will be this call to share your own work. Whether it’s something that you write as soon as you finish reading this post, or it’s a poem you’ve posted or had published, place the whole poem in the comments or put a link to it. A brief description before the link will help me process comments faster, so I know they’re not spam.

Also, feel free to share links to poems or spoken word performances by other poets. I hope this month will bring a wide variety of poetry to everyone’s attention. Also, there will be posts on my author Facebook page, a link to which can be found on the right-hand side, that will include spoken word performances and links to work of other poets, which will not appear here.

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7 Responses

  1. Diana Tyler (Eccentric Muse) says:

    Powerful! I think this is my favorite piece yet! 💙

  2. I really like the unexpected reason for not making eye contact. And the last line made me smile with its understated truth. 😀

    • Mandie Hines says:

      I’ve received some really good comments on this piece, in person and in text messages. It’s always rewarding when something I’ve written connects with people. And sometimes surprising. I think I’ll be describing something that is my personal truth and I find other people experience the same thing.
      I’m so glad you stopped by and left a comment!

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