M.A. Vizsolyi

Blind Man as Astronomer

i was a body in firelight being read by
people who were they & where were they
from i never saw them in the bar or in
town they were lean rabbits coming
out of a hole & would they disappear
back again tomorrow to their lives & look
in the mirror say my hair look nothing can
be done with it those who gave themselves
to someone what will they do i was
sure if someone knew it was Grief but he
was busy with a girl explaining to her
something about silence in music its relation
to those blank pages at the end of a book
he was going to try it he said a book
with blank pages at the beginning take
notes on lamps or anything at all first
he said see how they hold up to the literature
you have yet to read i heard her laugh &
then i heard nothing i looked & saw Grief staring
at the girl in silence who looked uncomfortable like
a tall man asleep on a very small red couch

M.A. Vizsolyi is the author of The Lamp with Wings: love sonnets, winner of the National Poetry Series. He is also the author of the chapbooks, Notes on Melancholia (Monk Books) and The Case of Jane: a verse play (fivehundred places press). He teaches writing in the BFA program at Goddard College.