My glasses were so dirty the other morning that they were giving me a headache. As I was cleaning them, it occurred to me that they were a fitting metaphor for the current distortions and virtiol of our social discourse. Pondered this as a metaphor produced the following.

Clean Lenses

funny how distorted reality seems
when your lenses are dirty
sometimes funny or scary
sometimes daunting or
just plain disgusting

all from grit and grime
little smudges in the periphery
weird unfathomable streaks
through the main sight-line
while clean lenses clarify
and realign

but only if one’s
eyes are truly open
and partisan bliners
are put aside
to see reality
from the inside
and the outside

through transparent
clean lenses

–LE – 4/15/26