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Open Poetry #34
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The Voice Behind me
| Open Poetry #34 |
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The Voice Behind me |
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Jaime Fradera Senior Member
since 2000-11-25
Posts 843Where no tyranny is tolerable |
The Voice Behind me I am walking along a sidewalk. The voice behind me says: I'll help you. I will do it for you. I tell the voice behind me, no; because then the voice behind me wouldn't learn anything, and neither would I. I slide my cane along the sidewalk edge, finding the boundary between the pavement and the hedge. I tell the voice behind me: Look ... see this feature here? The line between the pavement and the hedge? This feature tells me where we are. I want to teach you the basics of white cane technique. I want to show you how blind people get around. Suddenly the bush along the sidewalk is gone. Then the pavement starts to pitch and roll, swaying, undulating, like the deck on an ocean-going boat. Then the pavement I am standing on gives way. And then I'm in a vast and empty void. I hear the voice behind me, withering, sneering, mocking: ... Do you need help now? Then I wake from the dream feeling miserable and sick. SC Word I was alone in my life again, Word I had no one left, but God. Robert Frost Bereft |
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Midnitesun
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647Gaia |
Well, mi amigo, if that sidewalk gave way under me? I'd be just as scared, and hoping for a kind helping hand. That anyone would sneer though, would not be acceptable. You are a good teacher, in so many ways. |
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quatro Member
since 2003-04-29
Posts 392Galveston, Texas |
Accepting help or a handout is always humbling, but there will always come a day when we have to bow our head and accept graciously the blessing bestowed upon us. quatro |
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
Oh, Jaime, this brings about such a memory for me, but it has to do with an illness that I experience from time to time...while not threatening, I do feel the boat pitch... And you just brought it real again... You do have a way with words, Sir... |
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Jaime Fradera Senior Member
since 2000-11-25
Posts 843Where no tyranny is tolerable |
Sunshine: The voice represents the insufferable arrogance displayed by many sighted people toward us. Many but not all. I have endless endless endless praises for Midnitesun. She seemed intuitively to understand everything. For if the truth be known, I am a control freak I need to know where everything is, who is in my house, and they better not touch my equipment with out permission. When out in public I need to know where I am at all times and will not let strangers manhandle me or try to pull or push me this way or that. Giving up this autonomy to ignorant self-appointed sighted care-taker types would be the worst nightmare. The horror of this dream is that the voice plays with me, humors me, lets me think I know where I am, even lets me think I am needed, only to pull the world from under me, cackling and sneering, mocking and laughing. In waking life, of course, I know this isn't true. I know that I am needed here. I would love to know your experience with an illness. SC |
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