Oculos Vita

Standing in front of the bakery
the one on 22nd street
I saw a reflection in the window
someone I faintly remember
There was something about those eyes
Old, wise eyes– the color of the sea
Eyes that have seen a gazillion images
read thousands of books
captured the attention of legions
Eyes that have witnessed unspeakable horrors
and delighted in perfect, miraculous, splendor
Eyes that have recorded years, decades, millenniums
seen uncountable evolutions, revolutions,
beginnings, endings and beginnings again
Familiar but somehow odd
sad or melancholy,
tired, complacent, satisfied perhaps
Eyes strangely intimate
and
I know
that I know
that I know those eyes
I’ve looked into those eyes a million times or more
every fleck, every tear, every flicker of light
Somewhere, sometime, a lifetime ago
If only I could remember…

Shelli Carlisle 2012

Tagged life, poetry, Scattered Nonsense