Utah Youth

Do you need those glasses? 

Why not clean them off a bit, 

Lift the dust and grime, 

And see clean through crystal. 

Or better still, why not chuck 

Them over the side of that mountain.

From inside a basin, or from up there on the 

Mesa Arch, see this tilting Earth?

Let the One who made it sing you to sleep

And wake you up tomorrow with new vision. 

These layered mountains tell the story 

Of your fourteen years, all your striated hurt and glory. 

I wish everyone could see you 

Clean through their glasses.

Your mind and heart a symphony unheard,

I wish it could echo loud through these mountains. 

Pain eroded you, and the sediments collect deep. 

Maybe if we yell loud enough it will bounce

Off and disappear.

Or do you need a quiet

Wind to brush the pain off your shoulders?

© Emily Brown, 2016

Bryce Canyon, Utah
Photo by Jean-Christophe Benoist
from Wikimedia Commons

Eye of the Beholder

Is there ever going to be

enough time to get it right?

I thought this evening near perfect--

air so clear, the sounds just so, you know.

Why do these bugs get in my eyes?

They’re wrecking my vision!

What can I do?

Put them in the vision too.

© Gerry Sackett, 2014

Male Striped Horse Fly
Photo by Thomas Shahan
from Wikimedia Commons