they gleam in the light
casting shadows of the
future and little things to
come. i fall into them
and then
i see.

i walk the streets,
slowly patrolling the dirtied
pathways. they are free of the
red, white, and blue
who promised to keep
us safe.

each step is a haunting crack,
echoing in my ears
hour after hour
far longer than any grandfather clock.

every sound brings me back
to the beginning, going
further and further
until i cannot see what i know
and only know what i see.

perhaps it was a mistake
to take them, an oversight
in my rushed judgment.

but i took them because i was
curious, an inquisitive human,
one of our many faults, as it seems.

i cannot resist. they
are so much more.
my hair brushes the top and
with a swoop
i fall again through the earth
and i see.

they sleep on the
benches, shivering,
covered in coveted blankets.
i meet the eyes of one
and her message is clear.
don't look at me.

to me, she is the color
of apricots; wrinkled, with a faint
hint of black and hatred
in those disfigured, amber cheeks.

i am lost, dissolved into the world
like a ghost, wandering through
the streets, with no purpose
no reason anymore to live.

these jars which i look
through, pervert my sight
though they make the world
so much clearer.

i am see-through, transparent,
but my eyes remain, and i look,
i fall into their world.
i see.

they ask why? why should you?
why would i?
i look through glass jars
so that i may belong to the world
as one of their own.

i look through glass jars
to see the people
as they truly are.

i look through glass jars
so that i may have the eyes of a child
but the ability
to see like a woman.