eyes

​before I had any of these thoughts
I was as still as a doll or a star
I orbited nothing but the silence
and then I was alive and suddenly an old man
it all happened so quick
there was no time, not even
for a summary. I think, though
that I shall relinquish eyes less than
any other thing, the way they tether
or pull or push at the world
with less than air and
how they shut so that even the moon
cannot reach them. as it happens
when I am again a doll or star 
it is my eyes I wish to leave behind
           (most choose to leave their bones
           but I have promised them to the earth
           from which I was loaned such firmness)
two jasper sparks, two silver buoys
two candles in an empty house
I haven't used them up yet. 
as it may be for a while
let them keep looking out on
what I loved and in looking
become what they see
and in becoming, light as light
wholly disappear.
​