Mark Evan Chimsky

The Hungry Eye

The driver sees me looking at the beautiful male
construction worker when I should be crossing the street
The kind barista catches my gaze drift
to the shaggy-haired guy at the coffee bar as I pay for my dark roast 
The beleaguered father trying to round up his brood
doesn’t notice the way my glance takes him in
and I wonder when was the last time he thought of himself as handsome?
The man sitting alone in the restaurant avoids my eyes
at the very same moment I avoid his.
The trees are waiting for us to see them 
and so are the ornate Beaux-Arts details above
a window too high for most to notice
The sky never stops seeing us without expecting anything back
But my eyes are forever searching for the impossible
love that reveals itself in a hand, an eye,
a distracted smile not meant for me. 
I am always looking past the trees and sky for what I nearly
see.

Mark Evan Chimsky's poems and essays have appeared in The Gay & Lesbian Review, The Sunlight Press, Indecent, Blood & Bourbon, The Healing Muse, Thin Places and Sacred Spaces: A Poetry Anthology, The RavensPerch, Rabble Review, The Poet, Bard & Prose, Poetry for Ukraine, The Jewish Literary Journal, Kind Over Matter, Bullets into Bells, Wild Violet, The Maine Sunday Telegram, The Oakland Review, JAMA, Mississippi Review, The Cincinnati Judaica Review, and The Three Rivers Poetry Journal.