My eyes were yellow yesterday
From the dye
Used to find the stray
Contact lens that had slid
Up beneath my eyelid
For the last four days
Scratching
Like a witch’s nail
Reminding me of that time when my retina
Split in half
The doc removed the plastic shred
With a forceps bitter and long
He said “don’t move now”
I’m a very good patient
Obedient as fuck
Docile
Holding back my screams
Loneliness is waiting
In a dim exam room
Where you were once told
You’d gone blind
And didn’t even know

– FLB

***

yellow eyes
glisten
in the shadows
the darkest black
opaque
like the deepest ocean
they don’t blink
and i stare back
daring
there’s a trill up my spine
and i stare back
everything moves
except
the gaze
the energy between us
the potential

– LB