What do you see?

What you see
and what I see
may differ markedly.
Do you see
the tenderness
of a madonna;
the woman's hand
cradling her child;
the child's hand and face
pressed against her chest?
Or do you see the gnarled remains
where once a tree
branched out into a limb,
whose sturdiness may once have held
a swing, or a child;
might once have burned
to heat a mother's home?