Blind Man’s Bluff
What is this game? I am thirty-three,
and my eyes are covered up for play.
The world is solid black, my movements
slow & clumsy with fear. All around
my floating head, voices chatter & laugh.
Tree roots line the ground, dangerous
protuberances, desiring my blood.
At a distance, I hear water falling,
it sounds uncommonly happy, it sounds
like someone peeing. I could stay
this way forever, or at least
for a few minutes. My own daughter
giggles when I stumble, and I wave
my hands to catch her hair: sweet web,
tying my heart to my body
so it dares not take flight.
I don’t know anymore
if the grass is green here; mostly I sense
bare, flaccid soil, decaying leaves.
What chemicals created this relentless
natural discontent? Is there a cure?
Old desires for wandering flood upward,
through jagged white bone, never coming
to fruition. This tender moment
of blindness is welcome relief.
Certainly if I were to break an arm,
a leg, I would be taken out
of this awful inertia. The laws of physics
are absolute, giving no small comfort
to a homeless spirit like mine.
There is nothing like the delight
of a very young child — to fracture
such a short-lived spell
would bring the greatest weariness of all.
Yet, if despair is the only real sin,
I am surely damned. In the darkness, I reach.
As I grope her small round face, she speaks,
and I feel the soft lips move
under my fingertips: you found me, Mommy.
Kimberly Townsend Palmer 
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep
it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later. Many thanks
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Great website, continue the good work!
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I used to play this game with my mum! I can’t believe how many times we all fell on our asses, but nobody every got hurt! A miracle!
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Great blog you have got here.. It’s hard to find excellent writing like yours
these days. I seriously appreciate people like you! Take care!!
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I’m glad I found your blog and I’ll be book-marking and checking back often!
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I liked to play this game when I was a child. I am trying to distract myself from worrying right now, and this was helpful.
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blind man’s bluff! i played that as a child! this is lovely.
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This sounds like an idyllic moment for you and your daughter. You captured it.
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Wonderful slice of life with a child.
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I love the ending. I have a small daughter too!
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I’m not sure why this poem has so many comments, I mean, it ‘s okay. But 65 comments? Wow.
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I had a daughter who got abducted by her father. I found her but it took two years. I felt that was searching blindfolded. This poem somehow connects with that.
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What a strange game to play with a child.
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This reminds me of my grandmother who was blind. She had the ability to sense things through hearing, like a bat or a cat or a rabbit or a deer.
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This sounds like a real little kid I know!
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My daughter said the same thing to me in pin the tail on the donkey, when she was blindfolded. Moments, captured, are good poetry. Thanks.
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