A selfie sounds like a snap

 

A plastic click and a scrape

 

Like a climber's hook

 

Grasping for a crack on the face of the mountain

 

And slipping

 

But the self sounds different

 

Like a heartbeat

 

Alone in an orchestra hall

 

Tense thumps rebounding off of empty chairs

 

 

 

A selfie looks like a moment of you

 

When you want to be yellower or

 

Darker or vintage-er

 

But the self looks like a face

 

Two eyes that flicker

 

Trying to capture in our own camera

 

Everything but ourselves

 

 

 

A selfie is sent

 

Like a greeting card

 

To everyone you know

 

And don't

 

A self puts the phone away

 

Turns back to the mirror

 

Wonders if anyone will notice

 

The black and blue

 

Turning green and yellow below her eye.

 

 

 

A selfie is anything you could want

 

A five second trip

 

Into the world where you are special

 

Into the world where people see your

 

Red blood

 

A self is what you are

 

A battered and bruised one

 

A slower, normal one

 

Living in the world where you bleed

 

Blue blood

 

 

 

Except everyone is a self

 

No one is a selfie

 

We all are cells

 

In a sack of flesh

 

Black or white or yellow or

 

Tan or brown or grey

 

All sticky and lumpy inside

 

 

 

But the real world 

 

Is the only place you can go

 

To be different-

 

Anyone can take a selfie.

 

Anyone can be black-and-white.

 

Only this self can be all the shades 

 

In between

 

 

 

Stop looking to the selfie

 

To make your self 

 

Look different

 

Than your self.

 

It may seem that

 

A selfie makes you

 

Different

 

Unique

 

But a selfie

 

Is just what you are

 

With cover up on