Glasses

I've had glasses almost as long as I can remember. I'm legally blind without them. Since I loved to read then (and still do,) I was really this scared when I first realized things were a little fuzzy.

I was a child of five -- maybe six by then,
With fingers clamped on my latest literary conquest --
the title is lost to me, but the cover was most assuredly blue,
deep blue, fall-into-midnight blue.
The color is all I can remember -- the words weren’t clear
(even when I brought my face so close to the page that
I could smell the new paper and the binding glue)
The letters may as well have been a colony of ants
for all I could distinguish one from another.
Close up didn’t work, so I tried far away,
holding the book at arm’s length from my supine body
until all the blood drained from my hands
and they blended with the paper.
Still worse!
Where are my words? Please, Mommy, please, God,
make the words come out from hiding --
I have four more library books to read!
Please? I promise I won’t read in the car
at night by the headlights of passing cars!
I’ll do as I’m told and I’ll put the book down
and I’ll do my chores!
Will you give me back the words?

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