WHAT THE EYE DOESN’T SEE


Before fake news and photoshop,

we used to say

the camera never lies.

Yet, in this bowl of night,

fish-eyes collect and amplify

the light beyond discernment’s reach.

 

More shades than green meet here

in ribbons, plumes and streaming spikes,

then fade, but flow again.

Their known particulars –

of solar wind, magnetic field and charge released –

expose our partial sight.

 

By boundless silence held,

as underlings, we name the stars.

And do not need to hear,

from yard-thick ice, some muffled creak

to understand

there’s a lake unseen, below.




  iii.2018


  many thanks to Bruno Keiser for the photo