I used to know a girl with eyes like sunbeams. Bright, but intense, hard to look at.
Maybe that's why her gaze was always cast down, her eyes like headlights just brightening things directly in front of her.
She was Greek fire. I thought she would never burn out. When she looked at people she lit them up like they had always had a brightness like hers inside them.
After a while, I noticed her eyes were dimming. She looked like a dying star, and I was just waiting for her to finally fall to Earth.
One time, I told her I was Hercules. Said I'd do whatever it took to lift her chin.
She looked up at me and her eyes were just a pinprick. It was like she was in a dark room with a candle and a syringe full of liquid sun. She said there was only one way to light up that whole big dark room.
I said Honey, why are you looking for a needle when you've got the whole haystack right there to set fire to? And my voice echoed off the wooden floor.
But just then the candle went out. And then all there was, was a pinprick of light and a lost girl standing in the shadows.