Eyes Open But Not Seeing

 

Eyes Open But Not Seeing

 

Mask-clad pedestrians clutching packages and themselves as if suffocating hearts were protected by purchases. Rushing to destinations.  Getting nowhere.  Eyes riveted like the masher in a game of marbles.  Neither play nor passion dissolving memories of a hapless time.  Not seeing in their staring, strewn everywhere: faces of helpless brothers, distraught sisters, wide-mouthed children – suffering beings.  Elsewhere, tears caught in eyes refusing to roll down sunken cheeks. Wasted, withered fingers grasping at rattling throats.  Barely breathing -- their final gasp, hope.

 

Diana Turner-Forte

Diana Turner-Forte is a freelance writer who danced professionally most of her life. She revels in nature’s beauty surrounding her North Carolina home. Her work has been published in Kosmos Journal and Franciscan Times and she is the author of A Feather in the Wind: Poetry for the Body, Mind, Spirit, and Soul.