What is it like not to see?
I can imagine the darkness
Partial or complete
But what of everything else?
Would touching of the skin in the throngs of passion
Fill you with even more ecstasy
Would it help paint a picture in the mind
Seeing through the fingertips
Brushing metal bumps
Seeing Henley
Being like him, unconquered

How must it feel to inhale
And smell every delicate scent
Or every putrid odor
The sweet aroma of fresh lavender
The putrid stench of a dark alleyway
A blessing and a curse

Sometimes, it is said that you hear better when you cannot see
You are keener to the sounds that surround you
It makes me wonder
How blissfully amazing it must be to hear Beethoven's ninth in its full glory
Uninterrupted by the distractions of sight
Hearing every note as if the orchestra was in your ears

Blindness is a condition I do not wish on anyone
Yet it would truly be splendid
Could we appreciate
The magnificence that surrounds us
As does someone who has lost something so dear as his sight

To Maria