I trekked a trail in a grimy wood,
Pursuing destiny, fate behind me stood

I hummed a tune of great remorse
And ruminated a late divorce

Then

I found a man in a half-burned astronaut suit
The lining was charred, he only had one boot

No ship near, no crew—a sole soul
Lying in the middle of a crater; a grain of rice in a salad bowl

He spoke to me through strained speech,
Telling secrets geniuses wish to teach
He said the stars of dreams were within his reach
But the bounds of worlds are ones men cannot breach

This astronaut
Had his suit tied with barely an Ashley knot
I’d just shipwrecked, floated ashore at half a knot
I asked him to tell of his ship, he said “I’d rather not”

But his tongue had no fetter
To quell his grand eloquence, for worse or for better

Nebulas in the wind,
Spires on the moon,
Galaxies in the horizon...

He muttered of such as though humming a tune

As I sighed a breath of great remorse
And contemplated the great divorce

He pulled a smile then grabbed my hand
And said, “The future is the greatest land.”

I tried,
I tried to stay by his side,
But my every insistence was denied

He commanded to be left to roam
The lands and worlds that he called “home”

But never has it left my mind;
My only encounter of this kind

To this day I don’t know if they were things he’d seen
Or fancy thrills he had dreamed
But I’ve never known a mind so keen
To make fables real as his words seemed

And since that day I’ve sought to find
The experiential treasures he had mined

See, never has it left my mind,
That day my near-death was left behind

Yes, never has it left my mind
Because he illumined the darkened eyes of mine

Or perhaps it has never left my mind
Because when I found him


He was blind.