He asked her
haltingly,
if she was wearing colored contacts.
Not as an insult
because he did not find her eyes offensive,
only that
they seemed too bright to be real
bluer than an ocean; than the sky
She put down her book-
something about Mythology-then
gazed at him for a moment,
saying nothing at all
It reminded him of his childhood and
his father telling him to never stare directly into the sun
"It'll blind you," he said.