BLUE
I know a girl with the most gorgeous blue eyes.
She was so talented, and so sad,
And her eyes were like sapphires.
When I met her,
I looked into them with envy.
I wanted to be just like her.
I saw a video on an inactive YouTube channel.
It was a video of a woman. She was beautiful, her most defining feature
Was her eyes.
Ice blue.
She didn’t fit the bill for sanity, the way she saw the world
Seemed so impossible.
So far away from reality.
I watched the ramblings of a crazy woman, and I longed to see the world
As she did.
I knew a boy with blue eyes.
I didn’t see him for a year. When I saw him again his eyes were
As blue as ever.
But his stare felt
Unclean.
Today, I met a man with the bluest eyes I have ever seen.
But
I always say that.
I looked into them and all I saw was myself.
—from 2018 Rattle Young Poets Anthology
__________
Why do you like to write poetry?
Jane Josefowicz: “When I was little, I loved to draw. I loved to create things based purely on what I saw in my head. But as I grew older, what I saw was more complex; there were more layers to my thoughts. No two-dimensional medium could capture my three dimensional world. So I put down the sketchbook and opened my computer, where I created the world that lived inside my head, and there were no restraints. I wanted everyone to see what I saw. I write to give people a window, and to give myself a mirror.”
