Eye See, by Darrell Petska

Fernsehkind (TV Child), by Maria Lassnig (Austria) 1987. © Maria Lassnig Foundation

Eye See

where you hide
broken pieces of yourselves,
fragments stolen from others,
tokens of your gods.

interiors draped with make-believe
to shield bogus souls
inhabiting glassed-in houses
founded on thin air.

the cheapness of words – they pile
like leaves, the dark side of caresses –
they come to blows, the lie of harmony –
when conflict sells each channel.

reflections of reality
adrift on an irreal plane, smiling
stranger-faces like clouds
promising rain, spreading drought.

cavorting alter-egos
stringing pleasures and talismans
onto shiny chains bound
to drag the gullible to bondage.

competing dreams, diverging lives,
love assailed by possessiveness--
embattled insight slip-sliding
into the black hole of paralysis.​

Darrell Petska

Darrell Petska's poetry has appeared in Muddy River Poetry Review, Chiron Review, Star 82 Review, Verse-Virtual and widely elsewhere (see conservancies.wordpress.com). Darrell has tallied a third of a century as communications editor for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 40 years as a father (six years as a grandfather), and almost a half century as a husband. He lives outside Madison, Wisconsin.