The prompt for today is called “in the window.” Imagine a window looking into a place or onto a particular scene. It could be a childhood neighbor’s workshop or a window looking into an alien spaceship. What do I see? What’s going on? The challenge was to write a poem describing what I see.

Too often I look at someone or some situation and think I know. In fact, the longer I peer into it, the more certain I become that I know exactly what is going on when actually I am looking through a distorted lens.

I cast no blame on the distorted lens, the truth is we all see through different levels of distortion. All we need to realize is that perhaps we will never be able to see perfectly clearly. And it is ok.

The View

It is difficult 
to see through murky waters
and walk away 
with clarity of vision.

You see the waters,
they muck up our view
and leave us wondering
if our eyes can truly see.

What if our perception 
is really misperception?
What if the slow-moving river
holds terror in her depths?

It is difficult, you see,
to see clearly through
water refracting light—
it bends before our eyes.

Our anamorphic view
sees a glorious treasure
hidden in the jade depths
where crocodiles swim.

—A Draft Poem by Carla Jeanne Picklo Jordan

Let me know what you think in the comments below.