I am unfettered
Glass and wire left behind
forsaken
I am the sightless
I denounce frames and lenses
Like false gods
I am a disciple
fear replaced by loss understood
I am the naked prophet
disrobed
after prolonged oppression
I am baptized by blindness
dipped into the water
Fully submerged
The glasses wash away
Swept aside in the river’s current
Sins relinquished.
Like a prophet, I convert
Yet I rise — a Lazarus
A Believer.
I wonder
If my eyes weren’t taken
would I still be the same?
— Ann Chiappetta