From Writing Notebook 2021, published in 2022.
What About Me?
So, about you.
The impersonalization of the sunglasses
suits you.
Keep the expression blank.
Wrap your blasé around your shoulders
It goes three times,
then you turn it inside out
It’s something you have refined
to a specialty
If your eyes blink at all
at anything
no one ever knows.
8/17/21
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
I have some photos of me with sunglasses–hides the bags under my eyes! 🙂
It also reminded me of an old Fresh Air interview with Anthony Hopkins that I was listening to yesterday. Terry Gross mentioned how creepy it was that as Hannibal Lector, Hopkins never seemed to blink.
Yes, and people seem to mention “unblinking” with reptilian eyes, whether on a human or actual reptile, it is characterized as sinister and disturbing.
I’ve never trusted people who wear sunglasses all the time… I need to see the eyes!
The windows of the soul, as they say…
I never wear sunglasses so I have never thought about being able to hide behind them but now you have me thinking. Some people do like to present as “blank slates”, which is something I find peculiar and intriguing.
I like wearing sunglasses (which I do more often now to protect my eyes since their recent problems). I enjoy the distancing they give me from others – somehow I feel they present a bit of a barrier which I like. I wore sunglasses much more in my younger days working at pools, it was a necessity because of the glare, for one thing, but also, the swimmers could never tell exactly if you were watching or not. Cut down on misbehavior.