Pretty or Ugly?

Pink tree tops reflecting the setting sun

Or

Plastic scraps caught on the fingers of trees?

Stars on a wintery night, glistening like crystals

Or

Dreary cold, dead silence and frostbite?

Sun rays peeking through sleepy woods, glinting off melting puddles

Or

Muddy booby traps waiting to get stuck on your shoes?

A church hill painted red

A Christmas tree farm

Abandoned antiques

Warm gold and shadow intermingling with one another on barren grass

Or

Dead grass?

Frozen lakes, old wooden bird houses

Or

Abandoned homes?

Unkempt lists of incomplete fragments jotted down to return to when time allows

Or

Diamond thoughts left unsaid, unheard, and unloved.

Thinking in and of itself is a type of art form good or bad

Looking in from the outside always makes things look more exciting

It’s not as pretty once you’re inside

Telling only one side of the story, woven by eloquent lies

A house alive with green and purple amongst drab gray shacks

Or

Abandoned buildings falling apart, being taken over by green.

The urgency of players in a basketball game

Or

Dirt under your fingernails.

Fading round smoky circle in the blue sky

Or

Pointless observation.

Realizing human connection is all we have.

Learning the nature of oblivion.

Becoming one with the world in isolation.

Droplets leaking down grimy tear streaked faces, fed up with inequality. Voices screaming their anguish

Or

Peace.

People trapped, glued to a slab a metal fit to you palm, mesmerized by blue light frequency

Or

Freedom.

Pretty or ugly

Or

Ugly

Or

Pretty?