X Pro #1
Location
A selfie sounds like a snap
A plastic click and a scrape
Like a climber's hook
Grasping for a crack on the face of the mountain
And slipping
But the self sounds different
Like a heartbeat
Alone in an orchestra hall
Tense thumps rebounding off of empty chairs
A selfie looks like a moment of you
When you want to be yellower or
Darker or vintage-er
But the self looks like a face
Two eyes that flicker
Trying to capture in our own camera
Everything but ourselves
A selfie is sent
Like a greeting card
To everyone you know
And don't
A self puts the phone away
Turns back to the mirror
Wonders if anyone will notice
The black and blue
Turning green and yellow below her eye.
A selfie is anything you could want
A five second trip
Into the world where you are special
Into the world where people see your
Red blood
A self is what you are
A battered and bruised one
A slower, normal one
Living in the world where you bleed
Blue blood
Except everyone is a self
No one is a selfie
We all are cells
In a sack of flesh
Black or white or yellow or
Tan or brown or grey
All sticky and lumpy inside
But the real world
Is the only place you can go
To be different-
Anyone can take a selfie.
Anyone can be black-and-white.
Only this self can be all the shades
In between
Stop looking to the selfie
To make your self
Look different
Than your self.
It may seem that
A selfie makes you
Different
Unique
But a selfie
Is just what you are
With cover up on