How to See

Photo by Serenity Mitchell on Unsplash

A red leaf falls, a blight or gift

A blood spot on an uncooked egg

A ruby in the rain-soaked sand.

A maple’s auburn sacrifice becomes just one more to rake.

So much beauty missed by creatures who cannot reach around a redwood

But can saw one to the ground.

The hardest part is knowing how to see

How to shape the midnight menaces of crumpled coats in corners

without the potent fuel of fear, to remember

where there’s shadow, there is light.

So serenely the moon spreads her grace across the blackened sky,

Trusting me with patient vigilance. I want to earn the right to love her

By letting her illuminate my darkened corners

Shaping my shadows with her soft light

Helping me see each gift

as it drifts down

to land

at my feet.