Eye of the Beholder

[changeling67]

So, what does my eye see?

Fissures of a tree trunk, aged, weathered - silver and grey, with rust lines throughout. It has seen the sun, it has felt the rain, it has heard the dry whispers of the wind. Openings, new beginnings or a doorway to the end? A cracked eye, sun radials and a partial eclipse. Trapped faces, wooden ghosts, forked lightning.  Steps of a ladder, slates of a roof - a sickle, a star, a rose.  Chasms, a secret, cup bearer to the gods.  Nautilus. A broken smile, half a parasole, a shrouded woman.  A man asleep, spiderweb, eels swimming.  Laughter lines on an old man's face, feathers, a vortex.  Sperm meeting an egg, rebrith - cinders and ashes.  A clock showing ten to one in the morning.  Kaleidoscope.  Gyroscope.  Panopticon.

Scarred protection - of whose heart and whose mind? Eye of the Beholder - what do you find?