Seeing Into Both Worlds – A Poem

I see her

coming towards me.

She is walking

with a cane

but solders onward,

every step with

purpose. She looks

up and sees

me and I

feel as if

she is taking

stock of what

I’m made of.

She stops in

front of me

and we regard

each other for

a moment. Then

she speaks, in

a voice that

has known the

raspy embrace of

too many cigarettes.

“Look at me.”

She says and

I do, I

am. She moves

her hand upward

and snaps her

fingers at me.

“I said, look at me.”

I’ve experienced this

before. I sigh.

“I am looking at you. I only use one eye at a time to focus on people.”

“Is that a medical condition?”

“No, I was born this way.”

She nods as

if this confirms

her thoughts.

“I thought so. You see into both worlds, then.”

I’m taken aback

by her words.

“What do you mean?”

“You use one eye at a time, right? What is the other eye looking at when this eye is focusing on me?”

“It widens my field of vision. I can look ahead of me and beside me.”

“So you travel the plains of both worlds.”

I shrug, and

try to explain.

“No, it was just a lazy eye that was never corrected.”

“Nor should it. You haven’t seen all you have yet to see. Do you see goodness or duplicity in others, just by looking at them?”

I shrugged again.

“I just go with my gut reaction. “

She waved a

hand as if

waving my words

away from her.

“You have yet to see, then, but you will. You will.”

She put a

finger to my

chest and pressed.

She looked me

in the eyes,

first the right

one and then

the left one.

“You carry light with you. Don’t give it to those that don’t deserve it.”

So saying, she

walked on past

me. I watched

her walk away

for a moment

until a group

of people passed

in front of

her. When they

had moved out

of the way,

I looked for

her, but she

was already gone.