Friday 4 November 2011

Eyes Don't Lie



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I can tell a million things from somebody’s eyes
Many don’t believe it
But believe it.

Eyes have a story to tell
A powerful narrative
A subtle, implied tale
If only you are keen to notice it.

Eyes can cry
Without crying
You see it on the faces of
Workers on minimum wage
Trying to hold back well-concealed emotions
Or you can see it on an orphan
Or the face of a widowed woman
Disinherited by the structures of patriarchy

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Eyes of a child
Those innocent balls of joy
That grab your sight
Those eyes which inquire
Those eyes which ask
“Mom, did I have to sleep hungry again?”
Eyes which love
Eyes which stare right into your heart
Unpretentious eyes

Eyes of a lover
Shy, those dim-lit eyes
Eyes which stare into the space
Dreamy; distant
Like the disappearing cow-bells
Heard from afar
Eyes which don’t look intelligent
Eyes succumbed to the emotions
Eyes sagging under the pressure of love

Eyes of a liar
Eyes which don’t rest
Eyes ducking from one falsehood to another
Like the feet of a wizard on a witchcraft spree
Eyes which betray the trust
Eyes which don’t speak to the heart

In eyes I can tell your past
I can stare into it
Gaze at it, look at the pupils
In your eye-brows I can tell a story
In the demeanour of your eye-lashes
I can tell your spirit
It will be a window
To peep into your heart

The eyes of a witness
Can unlock a death mystery;
The eyes of a slain victim—
Have you seen them?—
They have that pleading look
As if to urge upon killers
To spare them;
The eyes of a condemned man
They are dark, ghostly
Dim-lit, resigned to their fate;
The eyes of a conman—
Have you also seen them?—
They are like dangling ropes
On the roof-beams of a cobweb
Somehow they don’t rest;
The eyes of a paedophile
They too have a story to tell
They are half-truthful, half-lying
If you look at them hard-enough
They boomerang to rebellion
Never be caught in its pretence;
The eyes of a serial killer
The most calm, the most devious
They are moist with love
Teetering on the edges of mock-love
All you will ask yourself
“Did he really kill all those people?”

I once remember the eyes of a madman I saw
So calm, so staid
They could have been the eyes of any other
In them I saw reason,
In them I saw no confusion
In them I saw no demented mind
Until he murmured his abracadabra

I also saw the bushy eye-brows
Balls of eyes that scared me
But three conversations later
It turns out that he was the best soul to have known!
Eyes can be so deceiving!
After all, all that jitters is not bold!

Then there are those eyes of a hunger-stricken
Eyelashes dusty, pupils devoid of life,
Eyebrows scattered as if to symbolize their grim state
These eyes don’t cry
For to cry is to expend on water
And to expend on water is something their bodies
Wouldn’t want to risk doing

But such kinds of eyes make me sick
I want eyes that bubble with life
I want eyes that laugh at my heart
I want eyes that look me straight in the eyes

But have you been in the streets
And saw those squinted eyes,
Distrusting, as if you were a bouncing time-bomb?
Whatever happened to those warm, disarming eyes?
Well, it is a changed world
In the past, eyes met eyes, pupils met pupils
But nowadays you are intruding!

We have politicised eyes!
Some pair of eyes will see fingers in the public coffers
Other pair of eyes will ignore them
The rest will wonder which pair of eyes saw
The right thing!
Eyes have a story to tell
A powerful narrative
A subtle, implied tale
If only you are keen to notice it.

Next time you see a live butterfly smashed on a wall
Say so
Don’t say it was a painting!

Eyes don’t lie.






2 comments:

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Oh I so love this one, kiddo. You know a lot of truth for your young age. Your life is off to a head start when you already can see through to another's honesty or dishonesty. That will come in very handy, believe me!! Glad you are writing poems!

echoesofthehills said...

Thanks a lot, Koko. This is the beautiful thing about poetry. It helps me to see life and people in totally different light. I thank Tororot for making my eyes see the ordinary in extraordinary light.

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