Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Jessica L. Wilkinson

How the eyes

How the eyes

How the eyes

(1) find birds——hundreds of them——no speed
limit, or——as fast as the frame can see.
Here is a bird in a cage. He or she is
one of the lucky ones; (2) let sleeping dogs
lie——or beat the truth out of them——the end
is always the same——a boat in a lake with no
(3) water. Yet still it passes by——a cloud
without rain. And his face is embedded in it.
I (4) know it. Sometimes it helps to observe
a model posing as if told ‘pose like x’;
we all (5) fumble around in the dark, trying
to define our selves. A dead fox on a rug is
(6) still a rug, and soon enough the photos
(7) develop from the camera with a dirty lens.
Close

How the eyes

(1) find birds——hundreds of them——no speed
limit, or——as fast as the frame can see.
Here is a bird in a cage. He or she is
one of the lucky ones; (2) let sleeping dogs
lie——or beat the truth out of them——the end
is always the same——a boat in a lake with no
(3) water. Yet still it passes by——a cloud
without rain. And his face is embedded in it.
I (4) know it. Sometimes it helps to observe
a model posing as if told ‘pose like x’;
we all (5) fumble around in the dark, trying
to define our selves. A dead fox on a rug is
(6) still a rug, and soon enough the photos
(7) develop from the camera with a dirty lens.

How the eyes

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