Sunday, March 20, 2011

Buy One, Get One Free

Most of the time, I take my glasses for granted, forgetting I have them on, until something draws my attention to the edges of the frame and lenses I am wearing.  Here's two versions of a poem based on that: one in first person singular, the other in first person plural.  I'm /we're still deciding which one works better.

                                                             Buy One, Get One Free


                                        Glasses frame the eyes that frame the world I see.
                                        If I roll those eyes and concentrate, I can
                                        see the frames I bought and the world that blurs
                                        beyond the progressive lenses I paid so much for.
                                        But the frames I was born with are harder
                                        to glimpse. I assume my vision is unlimited
                                        until something – the unseen friend, the unexpected
                                        car – reminds me my eyes do have corners, out of which
                                        I can be surprised. I am not IMAX personified
                                        but more like a simple camera obscura,
                                        grabbing what light I can and guessing at the rest.

                                                                       Buy One, Get One Free


                                        Glasses frame the eyes that frame the world we see.
                                        If we roll those eyes and concentrate, we can
                                        see the frames we bought and the world that blurs
                                        beyond the progressive lenses we paid so much for.
                                        But the frames we were born with are harder
                                        to glimpse. We assume our vision is unlimited
                                        until something – the unseen friend, the unexpected
                                        car – reminds us our eyes do have corners, out of which
                                        we can be surprised. We are not IMAX personified
                                        but more like a simple camera obscura,
                                        grabbing what light we can and guessing at the rest.




No comments:

Post a Comment