cross-Eyed love

i do not know how it began -
only that one morning
the kookaburra sang sideways
and you looked up from the grass
with eyes that refused to agree.

one eye held the sun,
and the other a shadow of cloud
passing over the pond.
between them i stood:
a heron startled mid-wade.

love, i thought,
should be a straight path
through the pines.
but here it was -
a zigzag of light across the water,
a dragonfly drunk on distance.

you blinked, and the world tilted.
a beetle rolled off a blade of grass and
my heart followed,
tumbling into the soft mud
where the irises grow crooked.

i have spent years trying to walk upright.
now I practice leaning -
shoulder to your shoulder,
breath to your uneven breath;
learning the grace of the off-kilter.

at dusk you point to a star
that isn’t there for anyone else.
i see it anyway...
a small fire burning
in the wrong corner of sky.

tell me,
what is perfect but a kind of death?

let the others keep their mirrors and
let us keep this wild refraction -
two pupils, one love,
forever arriving a little beside the point.

Author's Note

we all know the straightness of corkscrew, inspite of how it may look...

Reviews

[---]

I, admittedly, read this a few days ago and wasn't sure whether to leave a comment. I think I assumed that it would inevitably be flooded with flattery, and therefore any positive reinforcement I might leave would be redundant. (This is a common pattern for female writers, here, who are both talented and appear beautiful in their thumbnail).

I'm not sure if I'm disappointed, or not, to see that hasn't happened. But given that it hasn't I thought I'd leave some words.

High, high quality of work - you've got excellent syntax, excellent delivery, thoughtful imagery and a smiling theme. I wouldn't change a thing, and have no criticism to that end.

That said, if it's of any reassurance, the basis to which writers receive recognition, a least here, is built upon how often they review others. This generally looks like flattery, which is traded, and is not necessarily thoughtful or true.

I've nothing but disdain for people who do this, but once you've received enough positive reviews you make the Writing Page and are generally reviewed, thereafter, by the public (whomever should be casually using the website).

Talent, profundity or quality of work aren't the metric (all of which you have) as unfortunate as it is to say, clicks are.

I wanted to pass that along, in the event you were feeling discouraged by how few have commented so far.

I was genuinely struck by your skill, and am of the opinion that were we living in an era where poetry was both celebrated for its quality and rewarded through sale (it is not, anymore) it's likely that you'd easily turn a profit given your ability.

Wish you luck, and sincerely hope to see more.

[Lara]

Thank you, O.
I appreciate you. 🙏