The Camera's Vacant Eye

by R. D. Ashby

Incredulous, the refugee cries
in the camera's vacant eye:
"We are human beings like you!"

Or as the TV chat-show ends,
the host starts to make amends
for lack of time, in the camera's

vacant eye, they sitting in rows
are summarily shot:
have you noticed how it does?

Incredible it seems
that for all it sees the camera's
vacant eye sees nothing:

beauty, passion, tragedy,
the stuff of humanity,
extract not a tear, nor even cloud

the camera's vacant eye,
whose shutter operates on pure light,
admitting only facts.

Incredible that what the camera's
vacant eye conveys is turned
to fiction in our own, yes,

fiction, that shows its colours
when the refugee cries incredulous:
"We are human beings like you!"

12-Sep-2010

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