i take my glasses off

Lucille Clifton 

it is the hard

edge of things

i am avoiding

the separations

so that i can take my glasses off

and then i cannot tell

which are the leaves

and which the angels

like blake

like that man

who lived with the lepers

not noticing what was sin

and what was grace

visioning visions vision

i take my glasses off

so i can see

#poets

 “Most people don’t see you. They see how you make them feel.”

I wonder if it’s scary to know how thoroughly I see you.

I don’t know if anyone knows how diabolical you are. 

How scary inappropriate. Invasive. Indecent. Insecure. 

How being born plain will always be an impossible hurdle for your super-sized ego to bear. 

 

The Past by Stephen Dunn

Herrings begin to glow just after they die, 

never while alive. When I read this 

I wanted to sit for a long  time in the dark. 

Nothing in nature is a metaphor. 

Everything is. I thought both thoughts. 

And I knew inexactly why I felt sad. 

Herrings dead and a glow- 

I should have been properly amazed, 

the way anyone. looking at a star 

would be., realizing it was years away, 

untouchable. Yet there it is, shining.

Kinder than Man by Althea Davis

And God

play ease let the deer

on the highway

get some kind of heaven.

Something with tall soft grass

and sweet reunion.

Let the moths in porch lights

go someplace

with a thousand suns,

that taste like sugar

and get swallowed whole.

May the mice

in oil and glue

have forever dry, warm fur

and full bellies.

If I am killed

for simply living,

let death be kinder

than man.

 “Be careful. When you do too much for people, they start loving your hand and not your heart.”