Everything Is Illuminated Poem by Maya Hanson

My eyes are closed.

I am a bat,
guided by darkness.

I am a mole,
staying out of the sun.

I am a spirit
confined to the night.

I am a shadow,
mean nothing to anyone.

My eyes are closed.

I bump into walls,
take a picture
in my head
two colors, five, ten
what’s the difference?

Flurries of misunderstanding
I’m taken over
One lonely bat flaps its
Wings in my ears.

I am a creature of the black.
No matter what language you translate my eyes to,
I can’t see.
No matter whose wings live in my memories,
I can’t feel.
It doesn’t matter which words you speak,
or what world you control.
I am a knight of the night.

My eyes stay closed.

One day I wake up
Just another day
my eyes are swollen shut
with the weight of my fears.

But this world is different
I feel it,
I see it
in colors
Behind the abused lids of
my eyes.

No longer dreaming
in black and white,
I capture a sixth sense
in the mystery of my mind
A final sight.

I open
my eyes
and
everything is
illuminated.