- Jason Wood
Poem: Blinded
My blind dog cannot see
Eyes drenched with milky film
Perked ears let me know he hears
While wags signal love and bliss
A wrecking ball through the home
A bump here, a bang there
Silver metal bowls his GPS
The shiny northern star
Beams fall on broken eyes
Relying on nose and ear
Guiding him to his bed
Refuge from a blank world
I wonder what it’s like
Blackness with every blink
A world with no sunrise, just night
Yet he knows love, that i’m sure
Disease stole his vision
Like it robbed me of mine
My retinas still operate
But for a time, I failed to see
Food consumed the mind
Like sunshades to the light
Life continued without me
Beyond anxiety’s tight blindfold
My smile remained, tail still wagged
Yet inside the blindness raged
Memories missed, mind devoured
By skyscraper expectations
Forced into a dark, cold cell
A prisoner by jury of one
Fed up with this disease
I barked and growled for help
Then it came, my time for release
I can see again, but he cannot
Man’s best friend still knows love
As dog’s best friend now knows light

