Through Nonporous Eyes

A Writer's Cramp: (40 lines or less/24 hours)

Prompt:You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself.

by Walt Whitman

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Through Nonporous Eyes

I see the cow-brown eyes

Of a swimming sea lion

As I stand upon the beach.

He watches me across the waves.

I welcome his glassy-eyed stare,

But I cannot take him within me,

Nor feel myself in him.

Bored with me, he looks away,

The salt-water tears of ocean

the only conduit of our sharing.

With his sleek, black fins

The seal pushes away,

Back to open sea.


When I touch your hand with mine,

And my blue eyes meet with yours,

Although I peer inside you, searching,

Our eyes remain nonporous.

Like the sea lion, we swim

Two different directions.


Filter me through your impervious eyes,

Guide me close in your sea of words,

And I shall feed your ears with

The sands and shells of my sight.

Thus, can we swim in the surf together,

Gathering up froth and foam

To rise from beneath our salted tears,

Naked-skinned and opened.