Twelve Ways of Looking into Brown Eyes | Lillian Glover
i
"The gods and goddesses have given him victory, and power, and life, and strength, and health, and every beautiful thing of every kind whatsoever..."
ii
You’re still and sleeping,
You’re bold and bled,
You’re running and roaming,
You’re flowing freely in a riverbend.
iii
Everywhere in an unfolding metropolitan,
On my streets and roads — bustling tunes in a farmers market,
In the cars which rev past.
iv
Jupiter's bands and ammonium clouds,
Venus from afar,
Saturn's rings,
A telescope follows you,
A cosmos expands.
v
Run your fingers through soil freshly moist,
The world changes while you stay the same,
The world to bloom.
vi
You wrap warm arms around my form as my shaking settles,
I keep my head to your chest, pressed into a tight T-shirt,
You press your lips to my forehead.
vii
Ab initio, a capite ad calcem,
Do ut des,
Veni, Vidi–
viii
Among the deserts, the grassy plains,
The alpine hills and the polar pushing,
Mangrove forests dug and palms rising,
I see you.
ix
Amber and Autumnal, Beige and Bronze, Chestnut and Cocoa, Dal and Driftwood, Earth and Espresso, Feldspar and Fulvous, Galsaeg and Ginger,
Hazel and Hawks Halo, Ikigina and Impala, Jigarrang and Jacinth, Khaki and Kobicha, Lotion and Lynx, Maple and Mocha, Nutmeg and Nest, Oak and Obsidian, Peanut and Parauri, Q’avisperi and Quercus, Ruska and Rust, Saddle and Sepia, Tan and Terracotta, Umber and Uk, Vintage and Velvet,
Walnut and Wenge, Xanthoconite and Xenia, Yvysa'y and Yellowstone, Zōngsè and Zelkova.
x
Eucalypt-flavoured smoky air wafts through the breeze,
He dampens ochre on his fingertips,
Forms a paste,
Spreads it across the cheeks of a young boy.
Welcomes him home.
xi
Polished beads of smoky topaz woven with rope into a necklace.
xii
I mix everything I see into one,
Hold what is formed and moulded and made,
It’s you.
Lillian Glover (she/her) is a 19-year-old tutor, university student and amateur writer working from Ngunnawal and Ngambri land, Australia. She writes her work to explore identity, experiences and her identity as a descendant of diaspora, a disabled person, a queer woman and someone living with neurodiversity.