Pursuing Perspectives.

We were in a museum
And he
This he being a man who thought himself
Interesting because he wore two scarves
And a vintage frame on his nose.
Anyway.
Said,
“Wow Duchamp was a genius!”
And I thought
How easy does praise reach your tongue.
But of course we were seeing
Two different toilets.
He saw a magnificent fountain that broke
The rules of art.
And I
On another side of the room
From a whole other personal perspective
Saw no more
Than a dirty urinal
Which reminded me of my grandfather
Struggling to stand
As he pissed away in decay.

And then
Months later
I took my mother
To a boxing match
Where she stood
Breaking her nails
Next to a father
Fumbling his ancestral watch
Watching their sons
Cracking each other open
Like animals
And after the final bell
When I embraced my enemy
Friend
And smiled and winked
Best I could
My cheek cut and bleeding
My mother could not believe
That what she had just seen
Was a gentlemen’s quarrel.

This is all good to keep in mind
You reading this,
When you catch yourself in the mirror.
Or when deep in the night
You give in to thoughts that lead to
Self-deprecation
To remember that maybe
You are too close
To yourself
Or perhaps
That in the wrong light,
The picture you present yourself
Of yourself
Isn’t all that there.
That you contain multitudes
And that someone out there
Sees the beauty
You are not in the right spot
To spot.

Ricardo Moran