A CHALLENGED LOVE
(for Mark Pollock, who I saw speak with his partner at TED, 2018)

today i listened to a blind man
and his wife talk about the day
he became a blind paralyzed man
and how the double down dug them
into a deep hole neither of them
had packed boots for how she had

just taught him to dance in the
dark how to move and step and
listen to a body that would break
in half and still and would deny
him hip sway and gyrate and jig and
swing and touch of torso and dip and

darling you’ve never had to see me
to see me she said but darling this
is not what you signed up for he said
his wheelchair too cumbersome to cha-cha
and samba but perfect for somber saturdays
where she begs him to forgive his legs

for their miscommunication and his eyes
for their obsession with obsidian
she reminds him that his mouth can
still taste what’s too stubborn to leave
can still say what’s too singular to change