Pity the Blind, by David Eberhardt

Tomb of Téviec: Two skeletons of women aged between 25 and 35 years, dated between - 6740 and - 5680 BP (Mesolithic), both of whom died a violent death. Recovery made in 1938 and restoration completed in 2010. Muséum de Toulouse, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Pity the Blind

"Pity the blind," they say, as well, 
"The one eyed man is free" in our kingdom... 
At night, regard the flashes behind your lids- 
A bow stretched tight against the clouds? 

Sister purple in chrome fields- the Queen must die; 
From earth to earth we must return; 
Your ochre dress, your accordion; 
Fourth star out- Eta Carinae. 

You cared for me, Mireille, 'though you were blind- 
You did not need to search- I was the restless one.. 
I tear away- look at the sky you cannot see- 
The double rainbow, bright field of wheat. 

After a storm, we put the two 
Into the cairn, with countless seashells; 
Beneath two great stone menhirs/dolmens- in stone rows; 
As was our custom for the dead. 

Boar mandibles, red deer antlers and we sang: 
The four stars arrange themselves against the replicants; 
These women were our Gods in dreams. 
The butterfly, a "tortoise-shell" that 

Landed on her shawl that day. 
She sat so still...satori still. 
The same fly lands on the anchor/pilot stone, 
The stone a boat through years of light. 

Guide stars lead us between the henge; 
Two Queens sit beside a lemon field- 
The blind Queen leads, as in a game of chess; 
The younger sister wears a purple dress. 

It all matters- in the order of things- 
As they must- even the crows, 
Strut purposefully as covenants; 
A double rainbow promises bounty for this year! 

those assembled for the ceremony repeat the chant: 
"A double rainbow insures our bounty for the year."

Dave Eberhardt

Dave Eberhardt was born March 26, 1941. He retired in 2010 from 33 years of work in the criminal INjustice system. As a peace protester, he was incarcerated at Lewisburg Federal Prison for pouring blood on draft files in 1967 with Father Phil Berrigan and two others to protest the Vietnam war. He has published three books of poetry: The Tree Calendar, Blue Running Lights, and Poems from the Website, Poetry in Baltimore. He has completed a peace movement memoir, For All the Saints: A Protest Primer. In 2020 he won the Enoch Pratt Library/ Little Patuxent Review prize for poetry.

The Blind Girl, by John Everett Millais (UK) 1856