The Wish

Seeing just enough to know you're blind.

I’ve recently noticed
how much there is to notice 
that I cannot possibly notice.

Awakened just enough 
to acknowledge my slumber.
Eyelids too heavy to open
Yet perception’s in focus.

If granted one wish 
it’d be —
to see what I miss and to 
miss what I’ve seen.

To feel where I’m numb, and
to speak when I’m dumb.

---

So many distractions gradually blind me: phones, social media, television, and a job, among many other things.

This house, in which I find myself on Selkirk Road, where no neighbors are in sight except the friendly creatures who call this place home, has provided, in such a short span of time, the necessary environment for me to see (as though I’m in a faint dream) just enough to grow aware of how much life I miss in daily living. Oh, how much I miss because I’m too distracted to look and even if I did, I’d be too impaired to see, too poverty stricken to find words to name what I feel.

Life must adjust its course. I mustn’t be allowed to wander any longer through the streets, failing to notice that I’m being robbed in broad daylight.

Artwork: The Blind Homer, Paul Buffet