My115thDream

Poem - "The Look on Your Face"

Like a nerve grown numb in a mindless malaise,
Like a dragging despair that echoes for days,
Like a hanging haze that hides the horizon,
Gnawing and clawing and drawing my eyes in,
Refusing to stir as it blurs what I’d see
If my hands couldn’t hold what my soul shouldn’t see,
If my back only bore the burden of books
To deliver my eyes from the menacing looks,
Looks from strangers who have seen me before,
Who ask where I’ve been and then ask nothing more,
Looks that can smile while betraying disgrace,
It looks like I’m looking for the look on your face,
The look that I see when I stare for too long
And get lost in the secret surprise of a song,
Uncovered in the course of uncanny conditions
While prying and pulling at prior partitions,
The look that breaks down the nonsensical notions
That keep me from setting my feet into motion,
The look that releases the cold iron bars
When panic and beauty line up like the stars,
Etching their lines in the blackest of nights,
Redeeming unrighteous erroneous rites,
The look that awakens the rattled and shaken
Who was said to be dead if not dreadfully mistaken,
The look that cuts straight to the bottom of things
And follows with fury the first song that it sings,
Bringing to the surface its purpose to see,
To look for the look that she might find in me.