Snap Judgment
From Wikipen
Snap!
A slap in the face
No provocation, no warning
Leaving only flushed cheeks for evidence
Than anything had happened.
Just like that—
Only it wasn't my face that was hurt,
But my pride.
Comfortable in my quick dismissal,
I never looked again to reconsider.
A work someone thought enough of to display,
And I just turned to my friend, laughing
About what passes for art nowadays.
Same song, different verse;
Different crowd, one more look,
And someone comments on a detail
I hadn't even noticed—
Wouldn't have seen for myself
In weeks of searching.
There it was,
The touch of a master,
And I had dismissed it with the eyes of a fool.
If the flush to my cheeks was obvious,
no one brought it up.
So I spoke, an honest reappraisal,
Not daring to look another in the eye.
I stayed around only as long as necessary
Not to appear too anxious to leave
and exit quietly with the shards of my complacence,
Still reeling from the blow.
