A Glass of Water

So many ways of looking
at a glass of water –

why is one clearly not enough?

Because there are many ways to look
and it’s a different kind of sustenance

we’re after when we look at a glass of water

and maybe there’s no such thing as failure

when we look
because our eyes cannot fail us –

or rather no one can say for sure
what it is they’re seeing

and yet it’s there before our eyes:

if we know anything we know
here is a glass in which water lies.

Why look at a thing again and again?
What are we trying to get right?

And though I know it’s nothing

like the man who tried countless times
to make a light bulb

I’d like to hold one of those
failures in my hand –

see what might be done with it;
it might not have anything to do with light.