Pretty or Ugly?

Pink tree tops reflecting the setting sun
Or
Plastic scraps caught on the fingers of trees?

Stars on a wintery night, glistening like crystals 
Or
Dreary cold, dead silence and frostbite?

Sun rays peeking through sleepy woods, glinting off melting puddles 
Or
Muddy booby traps waiting to get stuck on your shoes?


The images 
rush             past me 
as the car     s    p    e    e    d    s     d  o  w  n  thehighway. 
I reflect.


A church hill painted red
    A Christmas tree farm
        Abandoned antiques


A quaint town we     d    r    i    v   e    through, on THE way HoMe.
The windows provide entertainment, 
Like a projector on a movie screen in a theater


Warm gold and shadow intermingling with one another on barren grass
Or
Dead grass?

Frozen lakes, old wooden bird houses
Or
Abandoned homes?


I add SoUnd to the film 
playing outside of the car windOw
With my thoughts, asking 
where 
how 
when and what?


Unkempt lists of incomplete fragments jotted down to return to when time allows
Or
Diamond thoughts left unsaid, unheard, and unloved.


I swear my best ideas only decide to pop into existence
When I have no way or time or hands to save them
While roads highways
Towns and cities 
R    u    s    h     past me
Andblurtogether
            ...Along with my thoughts


Thinking in and of itself is a type of art form good or bad
    Looking in from the outside always makes things look more exciting
    It’s not as pretty once you’re inside
        Telling only one side of the story, woven by eloquent lies


It’s like having the sun on my face 
and     m    o    v    i   n   g    at 75 mph 
Opens up a different dimension inside my mind
Where all of the secrets of the world 
lie waiting for me to unlock


A house alive with green and purple amongst drab gray shacks
Or
Abandoned buildings falling apart, being taken over by green.


Fading round smoky circle in the blue sky
Or
Pointless observation.


The point of a human life --of my life
Always comes up in my internal conversation
With the     r   o   a   d    ThE TrEEs, and the sky 
hugging my car as I move


Realizing human connection is all we have.
Learning the nature of oblivion.
    Becoming one with the world in isolation.


And then I sit and ruminate, homebound still
What of the faces and places I do not pass by 
On my journey home? 
What do I see when I     p    r   o   j   e   c   t    my soul 
across the globe?


Droplets leaking down grimy tear streaked faces, fed up with inequality. Voices screaming their anguish
Or
Peace.

People trapped, glued to a slab a metal fit to you palm, mesmerized by blue light frequency
Or
Freedom.


Are the lines we draw black and white? What bright colors do we paint 
Inequality, 
greed, 
       arrogance, 
         hate, 
    and fear 
to overlook their dEforMitieS and keep the FlaWed pieces in our mosaic? 
Why do we study     imaginary boundaries     on maps in classrooms instead of 
     the ones                             between 
Peo  Ple   ?


I have no answer
As I turn the key
And turn off the ignition
I wrestle with the question
What is this world we live in?


Pretty or ugly
Or

Ugly 
Or
Pretty?













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