Vacant Stare

I’d like to think

that I do not depend upon the reactions of others

to know acceptance,

that I am not seeking approval to feel loved,

that I have an audience of One.

Still, it was difficult to say good-bye to my brother

and receive a vacant stare in return.

I know that his frontal lobe was injured

and that he is not yet capable of expressing emotion.

I know that what seems like a lifeless gaze

is simply brain synapse that has not yet been rerouted.

I know that he loves me because

he told me so when he called me last month.

Yet somehow, it felt like a knife wound to my heart

when his eyes met mine

and expressed nothing in return.

Jesus may have felt this way.

~ae    

_____        _____

/           \     /            \

/“He came  \/  to His own,\ 

/and those who were His own\ 

 \  did not receive Him.”  /

\  ~John 1:11  /
\         /
\  /