An illusion

If you had never heard the word beautiful, Would you know what it means? Could you grasp it in the curve of a smile, In the hush of a sunset bleeding into the sea? If no one told you a painting was art, Would the colors still stir your soul? If no one called kindness lovely, Would warmth still bloom in your chest? If no one told you what loving is, Would you know how to love? We drape meaning over things we don’t understand, Dress the world in words that barely fit. Is beauty the pleasure of our eyes, Or the ache it leaves behind? Maybe we are fools, Chasing reflections in water, Falling in love with illusions, Trying to name the unnamable. And maybe that’s why I ramble— Because beauty is not in what we see, But in what we long to understand.