Poetry Contemporary 1 min

Vigilant

Claire Bateman

Claire Bateman is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently, Scape, with another forthcoming, Wonders of the Invisible World. She also creates visual art. "Vigilant" is in Short Circuit #07, Short Édition's quarterly review.

A secret disclosed in art class:
the face is five eyes wide.

You pencil the extras in
and then erase them,

but in every crowd
they're impossible to unsee—

one for the dead,
one for the dream life,
one for the yet-to-be—

gazing at you
from the other side of time.