She stands in her silo of darkness
while the doctors tell her
there is nothing wrong with her eyes
she should be able to see
but they only know
about optic nerves those stems at the end of the windows
wedged in her face
with only eyelids to protect them
like sending a man to war
dressed in tissue
and didn’t anyone think
to credit her eyes
those rolling magnets
collecting light
and everything mean
for shutting off
when it got too hard
to witness
anymore.