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Andrea Reece
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Email: branford.boase@gmail.com
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Andrea Reece
Tel: 07807 893369 | Email: branford.boase@gmail.com
How do others see us? Do they judge us by how we look? Are we even aware if being looked at by a ‘follower’? In this work a poet muses on the appearance of a friend, recognising that this view may differ from those of others. But no one can be judged by looks alone. Is there more going on here than it seems?
Despite the physical descriptions and the attention of her secret follower, we know almost nothing about the girl with ‘hazel eyes’ and ‘bright snakebites’. However, what the poet is able to convey very effectively is the weight and pressure of being looked at and judged, a pressure that the girl can only escape by choosing to ‘keep the world out of focus’.
Her nose is too big
Her lips rather small
Is what my friends would have said
But I didn’t think this at all
Her nose was unique
Her lips were rosy red
My friends were stupid
Is what I told myself instead
Her hair was long
And tied back in a plait
Intricately woven
I liked the look of that
Her hair was brown
With blonde highlights
It matched her hazel eyes
And her shiny snakebites
She probably thought
She goes unnoticed
Never sees the eyes
Keeping her in focus
Blissfully unaware
Of her follower
As she goes to the liquor shop
Never paying a dollar
I think there is something
Behind that perfect smile
Something deeper
She’s been hiding for a while
How could she never see
The attention she gets
From everyone she meets
Is she that engrossed in her cigarettes?
The jealous girls
Haters on the internet
How does she not see
Her eyes never wet
Or maybe she does cry
Perhaps She does notice
Or maybe she’ll keep sipping
To keep the world out of focus