With My Eyes Wide Shut ... 2020

 

With my eyes wide shut

With my eyes wide shut

I see through my cataract

With my eyes wide open

It’s a dark grey blur

With my eyes wide shut

I can see your tear-drops

With my eyes wide open

It’s the beauty of your mascara

With my eyes wide shut

I can see you from afar

With my eyes wide open

A big faceless crowd

With my eyes wide shut

I see the depth of your sadness

With my eyes wide open

Only the giggles and the laughter

With my eyes wide shut

It’s the stark, dark reality

With my eyes wide open

It’s the bright elusive illusion

With my eyes wide shut

I see a clear method

With my eyes wide open

It's an infinite madness

Context: 

This poem took root during a week of a one-eye-shut life due to a painful stye.

One close friend, Satish Nawathe, was kind enough to look at an earlier draft and provide an interpretation that I loved; one comment made it into a verse in the poem. I am sharing his other comments below:

The shut eye renders an opportunity to visualize without seeing, while the open eye continues with the apparent view of things. The visualization is envisioning ... and can reach the emotional state of the subject person ... and can even connect with him/her in a sublime manner. The open eye merely responds to the physical action of light on the retina. The shut eye is not blind ... it is a chance to internalize and contrast with the superficial inputs .. perhaps find the real meaning behind what appears to be!

It dispels the concept of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)!

I must also acknowledge another close friend and good poet, Satyen Hombali, whose influence of style and depth I cannot deny. An example is a different slant with a "satire with a strong message" in his Marathi poem, माणूस maaNoos (human).