Lens

When a picture

fails to capture

the moon,

no one assumes

the moon

became any less beautiful.

Perhaps

we've been measuring

beauty

with the wrong lens.

When it comes to the moon,

no one looks at the photograph

and says,

"the moon isn't beautiful."

I find it strange how quick

we are to excuse its beauty

from how it's captured.

Yet when we picture ourselves,

it's never the lighting —

we don't question the lens.

We don't wonder if the moment

could simply not hold us.

Instead,

we decide

we were never

beautiful to begin with.

Maybe we deserve

the same grace

we give the moon.

Maybe

not every photograph

is a measure

of what the lens could hold.

The moon was never less beautiful,

perhaps neither are you.