Look me in the eye

when you tear me down,

see the pain you create,

don't flinch from the anger,

don't mute out my screaming,

feel your mirror neurons pulse

as they try to recreate exactly

what you've made me into.

 

Don't force eye contact

when you insult and degrade

another human being,

holding power over them,

making them into little more

than a plaything for your amusement,

while they try to survive.

 

Do you see the contradiction?

Do you see what was wrong

in your past, when you were shown

that being different made you special,

that being normal made you right?

Do you see how power differentials

turn some of us into cowards

and others into brute sinners,

and many into packed dust?

Do you see why I cannot make you see

what social evolution has made us,

how we have shaped ourselves 

through history and myths and sociology?

 

Show me what I am to become,

show me who I am supposed to be,

and push me further into my closet,

force me to extinguish your genius

for being before and after its time.

You can't make me like my past,

let me reject who I was for someone else.

And you can't predict my future.

 

Look me in the eye,

for I know you have bad news.

I'm sorry about my parents,

I must leave to see what's left

of a disappearing personal history,

allowed to fade in the bright present light.

 

Don't look me in the eye when 

I hug you and sob for my loss.

It's not about comfort now;

it's about presence, and feeling,

and safety, and youth.

 

It's about social love.

 

The bond of eye contact.