Tonight's Poet Corner: I Am Ugly, And You Are Blind

I Am Ugly, And You Are Blind
by Belinda Roddie

You grip the white stick
like an extra hand. I guide you to
your favorite corner, where your
favorite books sit in their solitary stack.
You love the smell and the crinkling
sound the pages make.

The doctors say your eyesight might,
just might, return in six months' time.
I am happy that all the colors and textures
will return to you - the sheen of fur
on a fluffy dog, the brightness of ketchup

on a mess of fries. But I am afraid
of how your eyes will twitch when they land
on my rather homely physique and expression.

For now, I read to you, knowing all
too well that, even when you can read
without your fingers, you'll want me
to do this every night, when we have
our own room in our own apartment,
where we can count the stars together
until we get too tired to think.