Did I foresee
or was it anticipation
I liked to imagine the worst that
could happen – perhaps
to disarm the future
remove the sting
inoculate
When it began
mercifully slowly
I was not taken by surprise
I had a plan to cope
wasted no time
learning how
to navigate
blindness
Routes I had
taken for granted
were walked with mindfulness
recording all the sensual input
paying least attention to
fading sight except as an
index of impressions
mentally mapped
I decluttered
my domicile of all
I wouldn’t need or
couldn’t trust myself to
do safely any more
books and tools
both were a
wrench
I kept what
I thought I might
manage – basic tools
just in case I found I could
and books someone might read
out loud to me if such an
one might be found
to share my
treasured
And my most
treasured – music
well listening would not
be a problem but I wanted
to make music, to sing songs
so set about learning favourites
by heart, words and chords
which laziness had always
mitigated against
before
Did memory
which is not a sense
nevertheless swell in
compensation or was it always in me
to perform differently and without
seeing my audience, stage
fright diminished so it
was not a total loss
– blindness…
© Andrew Wilson, 2026
Can anticipating the worst that can happen, make it easier when and if they do? What do you think…
This post is a twofer – I missed the deadline on “I’d Rather Go Blind” Melissa Lemay‘s prompt to us in Uncategorized, over at dVerse Poets Pub, and so I am posting it for Open Link #401 and February Live hosted by Björn Rudberg (brudberg). There is also an invitation and a link to the live event on Saturday at 10 AM New York Time. https://meet.google.com/kis-bmzs-ifc