A Huge Eye

July 26, 2026 Poet: By Sara-Lynne Simpson Artwork: A Huge Eye by Cathy Dorris

A Huge Eye

A Huge Eye

caught me looking, its pupil dilated

to cover most of a blue-green iris:

fear, excitement, or just ease with seeing

in the dark? “I didn’t see anything,”

a man said at Hyperion Coffeehouse.

Two-fifths of that single eye sheltered

under the eyelid—painted blood red:

danger or insanity for “ballet eyes”

when I bourréed in pointe shoes long ago.

But two green/blue Earth tears dripped down and down

onto a fiery hot orange ground,

pulling me to opera’s Pagliaccio,

“Laugh, clown, even though your heart is breaking.”

Below the giant eye and to the left,

a faded chessboard had sections missing.

“I didn’t see anything,” the man said.