POETRY
windows
BY ANDREW MOORE
A window is a window regardless of its
condition. Foggy, dirty, cracked, colored or
broken; it remains a window. Kaleidoscopes
and telescopes, primes and telephotos; they
are all windows between us and what’s behind them. They are lenses through which
we experience the world.
I’ve heard it said that one’s eyes are a
window to the soul.
I believe in that saying.
Through different colors, size and definition, our eyes express our stories and expeditions. Our life is told through the microscopic filament between the world and our
souls.
We have seen eyes of every kind: foggy,
cracked, broken and shattered. Innocent
and corrupt, careful and reckless, secure and
dangerous, glad and distraught. Though
each is different, they share one similarity.
They have the ability to mask our true colors
behind the limited palette of an iris.
Have you ever looked into the eyes of
the impoverished? Have you ever wondered
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the vastness and complexity of the story in
which they mask? What is behind these windows? There is a story there! A story of grief
or tragedy. A story of bad luck or disability.
The important question to ask yourself is:
how did they get there? What was their story? What is their story now? What can I can
do to make their life a little better...
At what point did we become so disconnected from each other that we neglect
such humility and pain in the eyes of a man,
woman or child?
I have found myself in the presence of
the homeless trying my absolute hardest to
avoid eye-contact for fear of conviction. In
this moment I realized my fault. I realized
my immediate, disembodied solution to a
devastating circumstance. If I pretend that it
is not standing next to me, staring me in the
face, then it will not exist in my own perception. I will not see their pain therefore I will
not feel their pain.
How can I live in that manner? How can I
put off the life of another human being sim-
ply because I don’t want to be bothered?
Granted, we cannot ‘fix’ homelessness or
poverty as individuals but together, if we
take notice, we can make change. The harsh
reality is that those trapped in poverty are at
more risk than most to be taken advantage
of, to be hurt, robbed, murdered, or trafficked. This can go on simply because we
don’t take notice. We don’t look beyond the
glass of the window. We don’t look people
in the eyes.
We all have stories. We all have a past
and a circumstance. We all have a common
gate keeping others from them and if we
tried hard enough, we can look each other
in the eyes. We can look through the iris of
our brothers and sisters and see the pain,
the tragedy, the helplessness, the strength,
the compassion and the cry for help.
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