Slight Allowance of Silence

i'm sorry
but you know how when you look into the
clouds
and you search for things
and your mind begins to form objects
for example,
that looks like a winged warrior
riding a large saddled rabbit
and then in your temporary and self-amusing madness
you create more things
but everything looks like the rabbit
or the warrior
or perhaps other things related to your evolving narrative
you can't see anything else
in fact, depending on how committed you are
these images haunt you when observing new clouds
but only as traces
like it's the eyes
you see in everything
and no matter the images you invent
to surround those eyes
all you see are those eyes
as though they've become a part
of some unknown part of you
and you suddenly feel vulnerable
and exposed
in the presence of an unforgiving sun
eyes piercing your skin’s best defense against hostile rays
i bet you've experienced this when you were young too
at bedtime
those intimidating nights when a t-shirt
hanging off a chair
becomes a kid-eating monster
the glare off the wood its menacing smile
that same glare glistening off its top to form
those eyes
and you move the shirt
and tear down this monster
but its burned in your mind's eye
and buried in some unknown part of you
and the only path to peace
is refusing to look at that chair again
at night or otherwise
because no matter its current form
its those eyes
and how you saw it
how you see it
if i concentrate now
i can recall several monumental images like these
things like memories
i've created throughout my life
and now i'm creating more
as the remains of us begin to settle like ash
and once innocuous objects begin to haunt me
and i'm left only with
your eyes