April prompt #22

Write about your blind spots

Janet’s #6

EXTENDING THE METAPHOR

Not so much a spot of blindness

but an absence of vision,

 

frosted gray circled

by lack of clarity, an odd distortion.

 

Not like the walls

that closed in, slowly

 

at first, then fast,

swallowing up all

 

but a thin vertical line,

and then the rest,

 

and opening again,

strangely, on a train

 

in the midwest.

Not total, like that.

 

There is light now,

and periphery, but

 

everything is too large.

Faces are elongated.

 

It is not possible

to make out any words.

 

At a certain distance,

everything has a shadow-

 

image, an echo below it,

tilting to the left.

 

At night, the usual clues

disappear, lights line up

 

in curious ways. It’s best not

to approach on my right side.

 

I’ve learned to close one eye.

I’ve learned to turn my head.