Charmed

They said, 'You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are.'
The man replied, 'Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar.'
 
- from ‘The Man With The Blue Guitar’
by Wallace Stevens
 
 
Charmed, I’m sure, by how
things are not always
as they are
 
just so long as I don’t
look too far
into why this or that
 
is as it is –
though the worrier in me,
who needs things right,
 
rises like a warrior aching to fight
and breaks the peace treaty
I’d signed with myself.
 
He disputes an innocent view
or takes issue
with a blurry sunset
 
and says
 
‘It does not look like that,
it really does not
look like that.’