Viewfinder

Through a viewfinder
so much sea
it pools behind my eyes,
seasons my lips.

The kaleidoscope turns:
your hand touches
and drops, touches
and drops. My eyes
constrict, held tight
by the reptile
in my skull.

We are in the eye
of the storm, here
it’s crystal blue:
sea, sky, iris
bounded by
1000 lashes.

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Comments

[Dave]

Storm/lashes is a nice analogy. I'm not sure if i like that reptile in your skull or not. Maybe if he were a lizard basking in the sun (or on the warm rock of whatever)...? Overall I like it: elegant, no wasted words.

[Keith]

I thought it was great.

[leslee]

Thanks, Dave. The reptile is the reptilian brain; its relationship to eyes is illustrated here. There's also a brief bit on the reptilian brain here. At any rate, I don't think the referred-to reptile here is comfortably basking!

Thanks, Keith!

[moose]

Very nice, Leslee. Tight, balanced, interesting images. I liked the reptile brain reference - the ancient, instinctive response of fight or flight, etc made perfect sense in this context. I enjoyed all the word play.