Aubergine Beautiful

Thumbnail in sunlight
On the steel handle
Of water-spotted

Refrigerator
Door, a glow. Just there,
A hand, a thumbnail,

Probably not yours,
Lit up in late sun,
Compelling your pause—

What moral value
To a believer
In divinity

Or activism
Could a meager flash
In a drab kitchen

In a gouged desert
Just before sunset
Offer? Honesty,

Maybe? More prayers in
Praise of dappled things?
The humility

Of the hardworking,
Who rent small places
Where nail polish wears

Away to scruffed-up
Color shreds before
The next coat of paint?

Beauty is never
There for its own sake.
Beauty has no sake.

You may think you take
It in yourself, but
You’re what beauty takes.