Filters

Verse · Justin McDermott

The same world through different glass. Read Justin McDermott’s complete poem Filters, with an illustrated sheet and a plain-text version.

Read as text

Same world.

Different glass.

White.

The strain lets go.

For once, a clear horizon.

Let it hold.

Blue.

A heaviness behind the eyes.

Don’t turn away.

I know the rain in you.

Yellow.

Sun on the earth.

Sorrow beneath the skin.

Brightness without warmth.

Red.

Anger narrows the view.

Frustration feeds the fire.

Then the trial for burning.

Black.

The one I fear.

No bearings.

No truth I can hold.

Tomorrow struck from the map.

So I sit.

Breathe.

Let the verdict wait.

The glass is not the world,

though some days

I cannot tell them apart.

Light has not ended

where my sight gives out.