Lying Eyes

We don’t see things as they are;

we see them as we are.

Anaïs Nin 

Lying Eyes

I know you see 

what I am seeing 

but we are not seeing 

the same thing 

I cannot see 

through your eyes—

only through the lattice 

of my own life 

my accumulated wounds 

my carefully engineered convictions 

Our sight is a kind of polarization 

a fracture born from lying eyes 

And as I try to explain my view 

my mind knots itself 

around the question

of how you cannot see 

what I see 

There are three visions 

in every moment:

your view, my view,

and the imagined right view 

You don’t need to see 

through my lying eyes 

I don’t need to see 

through yours 

What we need—

what we keep pretending exists—

is a pair of unbiased eyes 

But that lens is a myth 

and we are not likely to find it 

We keep reaching 

for the clean lens 

the one without fingerprints 

the one that promises truth 

without the burden 

of who we are 

But every lens 

is smudged 

by the hands 

that hold it 

© Ron Simpson Jr. 

August 12, 2026