Commonplace

Some photographs leave my eyes feeling

like open wounds,

Like a betrayal after letting in.

Because they captured a beautiful and commonplace sight

when I have no common place or site,

not like that one,

anymore.

First the appreciative absorbing gaze

lets my heart back out into the moment

But as my heart leaps up, I am slowly sinking

in a quiet, determined letting down,

to the arms of my present chair,

which I experience as equal resistance and support.

Foreign and far

from what was never meant to be captured in a box,

the camera click like the close of a lid,

and can't be controlled

or asked to stay the same.

Because change is the richness

that gave it beauty in the first place.

But settled in, leaping up,

my eyes leak again.