seen by everything but the people

how did we get here?

velvet sensation of the hearing

of the sounds like red tones

against my skin red wine whole notes

velvet lipstick waves lapping

over again to see you

something seen so vividly?

faces looking at me

all these faces pointed toward ME

the soft sounds waving

foxy-eared almond tree

smiling with all its little eyes

dragon-scaled crested palm tree

from some fortress down palm drive

can’t quite regain a sense of balance

looking upward at that tree

fruit drops sound against your ears

the trees drop down their arms

around me they feel me slipping away

they aren’t too attached but they make me

feel seen and looked at

when you’re walking down the street

so high you feel you’ll die soon

wearing sunglasses so they don’t see

your fear trying not to make eye contact

with that police car at the intersection

the only ones who see you

are the ones that are all around you

the ones that are with you the universe

the faces of the universe

the faces shaped in the trees

the eyes looking out of the wood chips

in the ground the flowers looking at you

tilting their heads to see you

jack kerouac in the poster above my desk

tilting his chin to look at me

—October 2021, Stanford, CA