Follow My Gaze

Follow My Gaze

Art
Autumn Jefferson
Media Staff

Teach me to look in your eyes:

close or wide set. Cold sweat.

A duet. Now do it: all I feel

 

is tension: the peripheral view:

gravity: veiled exhales: my abdominal

cavity. I used to: avert my eyes

 

when someone noticed me. Now

it’s long skirts: printed shirts: watch me

be an extrovert: never inert: a subtle flirt:

 

the hurt: of this aloneness. Eyes pass:

through concrete glass: only if you

can meet them: desperate and desirous.

 

Inside us: a searching for something:

for pupils and irises. Don’t hide them

from me: I’m learning to be a person

 

again: bus stop small talk: feigned

phone-fidgeting: the beginnings

of a bald spot. Alone, I cried listening

 

to piano keys: the thought of being seen.

Felt the cat sneak onto the ottoman.

Her soft fur: Schrӧdinger: mottled

 

with ginger: she leaves the box

alive: lies down: across from me:

watching me: following: my: gaze::