Shift, Unsubtle

i used to study myself hard in every reflective surface

looking for reassurance, or cellulite,

all those lines, most from smiling.

i exhausted or wisdomed myself

into a softer state of wistful

at my own small likeness,

choosing   

sunsets and moonrises, sea and stars,

grains of sand sifting through my grandson’s fingers,

the flash of my granddaughter’s joy, comet across an opaque sky.

guess what?

absent the fitful scanning for discontent

is room for every beautiful thing.