Blindness

Through the windshield that hid Kim’s face 

I could barely see her brown eyes, darker 

Than they should have been, the color 

Blackened. I knew that even if my view 

Was clear, if the heavily tinted window 

Was not between us, it would take a long 

 Time to reconcile her image, despite the long 

Black hair, so innocent, and her stiff face. 

Her husband deeply tinted her car’s windows, 

To block them from the world behind the dark 

Screen of the vessel carrying her within view 

Of too much of the world and its color. 

 Instead, days gazing at boxes with windows 

Filled with bytes coded so that the colors 

Removed her from nature to a deepness of dark 

Cells, electrons pushing their way along 

Soldered arteries until they erupt before her face 

Giving nothing more than a hermit’s view 

 Of a life she no longer touches, no longer views. 

So why is it so unusual to tint these windows 

That otherwise would force them both to face 

A world in which they obscure nature’s colors: 

Where once their grandfathers walked with long 

Strides that hurried more in winter when night 

 Brought more reason for fear than the dark 

They now use for comfort; to disguise the view 

Of the scenes that all grandfathers once longed 

To see through the clarity of their windows, 

Looking to a world where they knew that colors 

Meant life and life was something to face? 

 Will our grandchildren darken all windows 

To hide their view of a world so discolored 

Or will they at long last seek out human faces?