Blindness Takes Us For a Tour
We see buildings, more buildings,
labeled doors and closed windows.
A grandiose staircase of a hundred steps.
Sensing no fragrance in the air
we ask for the name of the place
where we’ll find the flowers.
We see buildings, more buildings,
shut doors with combination locks.
We try the numbers we were given
but those will only open yesterday’s doors.
We keep on walking-
sunlight burns our skin. Time must
be running towards midday. We want
to ask what’s today’s combination
but don’t see anyone who looks
adept enough
to have memorized today’s numbers.
Legs strong enough to guarantee he’ll reach
the last of those hundred steps,
fling the doors open and let us rest
our thirsty, exhausted bodies.
We see buildings, more buildings.
Even our shadows will not get through
those reinforced doors. Blindness
has promised us tomorrow we’ll take
a friendlier tour along the same streets
but with the blindfolds off.
—Nydia Rojas, Middleton
