Attention to Detail

What I see is not what you see.

 

I have watched a mountain fire devour acres

my home tremble in the presence of an earthquake

a Blue Spruce slaughtered by lightning.

I have seen the way people hug in airports

hold each other in hospitals

with a similar but different intensity.

 

What I see is not what you see.

 

I see the way the ocean kisses the sky

The changing of the tide as it gives and takes

Every sunset fluctuating pastel

I see the way two people gaze at each other

consumed in love

pleasure and fire bleeding out pores.

 

What I see is not what you see.

 

I have looked at the night sky

seen the same stars

a billion different ways.

Fought to see good through grim

embraced challenges and failed

without growing bitter.

 

What I see is not what you see.

 

I see the way rain hits the sliding glass door

each drop

slow rolling, linking other droplets.

I see your beauty when you don’t

you gift more than you have.

I see you smiling hiding decades of pain.

 

I see you, will you see me?

 

– Breelyn Shelkey