the open eye
you tilt your head and the room tilts with you.
what is plus one of seeing.
one diopter beyond the blur.
the cross etched on the lens.
the slit lamp
a beam, narrow as a held breath, walks across the cornea.
the apparatus of looking.
a thin blade of cool light.
your iris, sectioned and sung.
refraction
light kneels at the meniscus and parts into halves of itself.
light splits, copy splits.
the seam blooms in three colors.
cyan, rose, violet, in order.
the floaters
small specks pass; you have always known them; you forget them again.
what drifts unbidden.
vitreous filaments, half-lit.
a ghost calligraphy across the sky.
accommodation
the ciliary muscle softens; the world steps closer without moving.
how the eye changes.
to meet a near thing, gently.
to release a far thing, willingly.
the closed eye
you lower the lid; an afterimage walks the inside of the dark.
release. the chromatic ghost.
a square of color, lingering.
the page exhales with you.