Filter

I wish I could filter my life
like an Instagram photo.
Peachy hues
cast captured moments
in a glory days haze
that leaves viewers
feeling nostalgic
for something artificial.
Look how lovely
that breakfast looks
and how delicious
those strawberries
right from a garden
created by a nice
Valencia filter.
My strawberries rot
in my garden
and I don’t take their picture
because filters
can’t change reality
the way people
think they do.
No,
I don’t really look like that
because I used a lo-fi glaze
to make my life
look like a magazine cover.
I sometimes
want a life that really looks
like an Instagram photo
but then I remember
how beautiful
the dirty and raw parts
of life really are,
the ones you can’t capture
on film
or filter into beauty.
Because they are beautiful
on their own,
even covered
in mud
and tears
and ugly.