The land behind your eyes

I have tried

To look into your rheumy eyes

To see the girl who may still dwell therein

The crows feet and the cellulite skin

I know that somehow

You are still there

The winsome girl

Without a care

And if I travel to the land behind your eyes

Through the badlands of sorrow and pain

Through the drudgery

Storm and strife

Of all that is

Girlfriend

Mother

And wife

There is a girl with sun-bleached hair

And sand between her toes

Whose laughter is lost in the summer wind

. . . . . .and night falls

The heaving sobs become silent tears

The days to months

The months to years

And then the silence of falling leaves

In the land behind your eyes

I am in your forest

Kicking the leaves

And stamping the stubborn ground for answers.