ManicDDaily

Sans Eyes

Time
sands eyes, blunts
retinae, but as distinctions dim
(I tell myself), a unique
camouflage
is limned; so I notice (in my peer)
how the tufts of white-tailed deer
mock
milkweed, puffed pendula
over thickets of fall-browned
fur; my blur
is almost proud of this newfound likeness
till I mistake upon the ground more pods (soaked)
for a chewed hoofed foreleg,
and now, on the slippery
of this steep hill,
as the translucence of evening thickens, I stop,
transfixed
by the loom of each branched stick, barred
by the barbed unravel
of somewhere fence, all
nearly swallowed whole
like poison
disguised in draught, razor blades
spiking a sweet, till just the second
before we meet,
some shadow
shapes sharpness.

And what am I to do?
Stuck, as night falls,
but use hands
to look ahead, and screw up
what gaze I have
as if sand could be molded
into something
that would actually outlast
this tide.

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I am posting this draft poem for dVerse Poets Pub “Poetics” prompt hosted by Mary Kling.  The wonderful prompt is the “All the world’s a stage,” monologue by Jaques in Shakespeare’s AS YOU LIKE IT, where he speaks of the stages of life, and ends “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything,” sans meaning “without.”   I am also linking this post to With Real Toads Open Link Monday.

Here’s an attempted reading:

Check out the prompt, the great poets at dVerse, and, MY BOOKS!!!!   Poetry, GOING ON SOMEWHERE, (by Karin Gustafson, illustrated by Diana Barco). 1 Mississippi -counting book for lovers of rivers, light and pachyderms, orNose Dive. Nose Dive is available on Kindle for just 99 cents! Nose Dive really is very funny and light hearted, and 1 Mississippi is a lot of fun for little teeny kids.