#1934 - some see, some don't

 

1934

6.108

18.iv.25

some see, some don’t

 

there are those look down on my work

on me, on what I do

how I am, and who

 

and some look up, from ignorance

they’ve not yet guessed

 

some see me sideways, like the bird

 

or hammocked in a question, mark!

 

know doddle when they see and why

although there ought to be no point

 

some see the fish in it

others tell me bear

 

I say there’s nothing at all

it’s a lie

 

there are some who look but cannot see

or won’t … some wilful with it

 

some look away, as from the fire

or ordure, from decay

 

it might be heaven or a cloud

 

some see who cannot bear to look

 

most won’t look at all

 

they’re in this room right now

a hush!

 

in the face to face

the eye to eye

is where I’d rather be

 

I love best the ones

who’ll look out of the frame

they are all my creatures

 

prisoners of, let’s say, my seeing

(and days I take none too)

 

like nature, work grows up around

a conjure, miasma

flight from the cliché

 

know death’s in those traps

so must avert

 

some see the weather in my eyes

come to preach, prognosticate

 

I live amid

such short sharp breaths

 

the furthest from the day

the closest to my heart