A toddler. Pre-personal. Innocent.
Our eyes meet, they scan and tune into me,
and in my body I feel vulnerable,
and a jolt of terror of being fully seen,
in all my emotional ugliness.
Without layers to their person-hood,
in meeting a toddler there is a simple intimacy:
a fully open being directly experiencing you.
You are right baby,
I am in deep pain,
angry, sad, lonely,
and I can fool the adult world,
but the light of a child’s eyes,
pierces all adult unnaturalness:
Trying to hide the negative self-image that isn’t even real.