‘My Wandering Eye’ by Donna J. Gelagotis Lee

Always Alone
by Phyllis Green

My Wandering Eye

I have misplaced my eye. 
I have done this before. 
 
It’s as though all the contents 
of my purse have spilled out 
 
on the floor 
and they are rolling like marbles, 
 
small eyes in the dark, 
each one revolving with my life 
 
its center, some strange 
twist of events, quirk of fate. 

Every so often, it happens, 
and I remember it. 
 
Where will I see  
the right direction, or 
 
is there one? Perhaps 
there is only the revolving 
 
and the search, finding 
what we think we have seen 
 
only to find we haven’t 
seen at all, so I discontinue 
 
groping. I let my eye 
go where it wants. 
 
It is mine after all, 
revolving around the center 
 
of myself and trying to see 
as far as possible. 


Donna J. Gelagotis Lee is the author of Intersection on Neptune (The Poetry Press of Press Americana, 2019), winner of the Prize Americana for Poetry 2018, and On the Altar of Greece (Gival Press, 2006), winner of the Seventh Annual Gival Press Poetry Award and recipient of a 2007 Eric Hoffer Book Award: Notable for Art Category. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals internationally, including Cimarron Review, Feminist Studies, Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art​, The Massachusetts Review, and Southern Humanities Review. Her website is www.donnajgelagotislee.com.


Phyllis Green is an author, playwright, and artist. She is 93 years of age.