i.
run! run to beauty!
ii.
a silhouette couple
stares into the distance
phones up – in sync –
an instagrammable moment.
phones down – together again –
perfectly petrified pixels,
but not at all like the real thing.
they can’t turn away
and neither can i
the orange and pink
keep reaching, reaching towards infinity
and i almost reach back . . .
instead, i too reach for my phone
a 3×5 disgrace of a copy and—
i turn and run for home.
iii.
my rebel t3i high-definition could capture this but the futility becomes apparent when i realize my camera was left at work undeterred i bound up stairs past sister and friend in a frenzy ask where my sister’s camera is but she doesn’t know so i shout i must capture beauty my friend replies you can’t capture beauty but i barely hear and the camera is found and i grasp it in victory turn it on the battery is dead.
at this point i just need to see it again so i run down sidewalks i’ve walked a hundred times the colors retreating from pleading eyes, darkening behind Nashville’s own Giant’s Causeway at Dragon Park and my heart sinks as i
r e a c h
as blazing sky-fingers
turn back into sun’s palm
yet from the horizon, a lingering song:
iv.
run! run to beauty!
the fleeting makes it fair
old age, cancer, shootings, fear
the fleeting you can bear
stop running, mind, towards what you hate
start running, heart, towards greater grace
oh fragile feelings, fleeting too,
beauty one day will stay with you