Ever find yourself daydreaming in a public place and happen upon an attractive person? How can you show your best angles to handsome onlookers and street photographers while silently quoting Emily Dickinson and picturing your next writers’ residency? Here are some suggestions for quiet thinking in near-solitude while accentuating what matters most:
Slightly Off-Left
Pretend there’s a woodland creature grazing just over there, beyond the field. Pan your gaze towards it. Keep your jaw tight and suck your cheeks in ever so slightly. Think about a lake.
Skyward
Raise your eyes up, as if calling silently to the heavens. Keep a slight wrinkle in your nose, forcing your upper lip to create an attractive chisel on the part of your lower jaw that is catching the sun. Aspire toward some future greatness.
Downward, Toward Collarbone
Pick either side of your impeccably smooth collarbone and train your eyes down toward it. Whichever cheek remains visible should be the one with the most attractive dimple or birthmark. You determine this before going into public. In this position, meditate on a current or past relationship.
Look At Your Raised Hand
Raise a hand to eye-level, and stare into the tips of your fingers as though dreaming of another life you spent as a concert pianist and/or thing without hands. Let the hint of a smile play across your lips. When you catch someone staring at your exquisite facial angle, quickly let the smile fall, as though remembering that you, too, must die someday.
Now that you know where to look when someone else is looking, you can get started on that thinking you wanted to do so badly. Head into a coffee shop, library or park for a melancholy afternoon spent living in the future, the past, or that vague space in between.
