Irish Music

A blind man with sightsurgically restoredcan’t recognize what he sees

in blobs of color, puzzle shapes.He walks in a paintingby Klee or Miró —

with no depth perception,everything’s flat.To a woman with Alzheimer’s

a dark red ruglooks like a hole in the floor —a bloody hole. She can’t open

her front doorwithout stepping past itand won’t let anyone in

except a blind man maybewho wouldn’t notice anythingamiss. In movies, a doctor

unwraps enough bandagesto succor a regimentbefore the big reveal —

the hero can see again!In life, the newly sightedsometimes prefer darkness

to looming abstractionsaccelerating pastat hard to reckon speeds

so the operation is reversed,which allows the man to sitnext to the demented woman —

a sweet woman, who loves Irishmusic — and hold her handas long as it needs to be held.