eye to eye

i’m tired, stressed, and pressed for time, but i’ve been wanting to write about eyes.

when people look at each other, i think they’re more likely to see color. but shades change and hues are so easily affected and manipulated by light. (there are some, with whom i argue, about whether their eyes reflect the ocean or stormy skies). in any case, it’s been a few weeks now, when i talk to people my line of sight is immediately drawn to the lines that surround a person’s eyes.

i’ve mentioned before, this affinity i have for wrinkles, but lately there’s the desire not only to watch folds of skin emerge and curve and smooth out as expressions change, but i’ve just noticed how much happens where lashes, skin, and eyeballs separate and blend.

there are tinges of exhaustion that hang differently from eyes that are not as well rested, there are creases that stay longer on eyes that have held more laughter…or more pain, there’s a delicacy and a softness that makes me want to touch them…to experience the shifts like reading braille.

i’ve never studied my face well enough to see what my lines are like, i hope that as times goes, as i grow and as i hurt, as i learn and as i laugh more, the lines of experience extend across my face. a map of rivers and bends written in cracks.

but when i am denied the pleasure of details, and i cannot see the beautiful complexity of skin, the next best thing to falling in love with wrinkles is to watch the movement of where eyes are going, they are so telling.

if i could, i would kiss them.