do we ever see the world
in an undiluted state?
i walked through the city streets today
and saw the world double blurred
through the haze of rainwater on my glasses
and the clear bubble of my umbrella

do we ever look at things
and simply see them, without an established frame of reference?
is it even possible to look at something
and see it as it is and not through the telephoto lens of the life you've lived?

does it matter that we look at the world
and can only ever see the things we see?
'is your orange my orange' sounds like a silly absurdity
a quirk of language and the subjectivity of human thought
does it matter there's no way for us to know the answer?

everything we see is filtered through the lens of the lives we've lead
your experiences color your vision like a pair of tinted glasses
my orange will never be your orange
the same way no two things ever truly touch

when you take someone's hand, your skin never really touches on an atomic level
when you look at the city streets blurred with rain you don't see the same thing as the person standing beside you
the important things are not the not-truly-seeing or the not-truly-touching

the important thing is that humans will always try
i will always try to see your orange
i will always try to touch your skin