the world was bright,

she knew~

something

beautiful and brilliant,

that she had heard

stories of

before she even knew

what they meant

but she'd known the comfort

of the filmy black cloth

for

much

too

long.

The Uber driver looked over his shoulder.

“What do you do for work?”

I didn’t hesitate. “I’m a doctor,” I said. Who cares if I’m lying? When there aren’t stakes in a conversation, in a person, there’s a freedom in letting go of yourself.

Like kleptomaniac Marie in Breaking Bad, I had become someone who needed to escape from whatever it was I was suffering from.

The Uber driver pulled out a book. “Take a look.”

On the back cover was a picture of himself. Obviously, this man wasn’t lying about himself.

The back cover explained his experiences of falling three million dollars into debt, and his slow climb out. How he did it. How others can, too.

“I’m going to be on Netflix.”

Somehow, my pretend, prestigious, fake profession seemed less impressive now.

Having made up my lie, I had been blind to the fact that perhaps lying isn’t so fun afterall, when there are people willing and ready to not exploit the innocence of others, and stand up for what is truly important.

I had been blind to the possibility that perhaps this Uber driver was someone who respected himself, didn’t need to escape, though he had clearly been suffocating.

There was once a man on the side of a road.

His eyes were blank and his hands were cold.

He shivered and shook as he held up a sign:

"PLEASE HELP, GOD BLESS" written in shaky hand.

Occasionally he heard the clink of a coin

or the flutter of a dollar bill.

But most of the time, he heard nothing

outside of the normal sounds of the city.

People walking and talking, too busy to care

for a poor blind man

with nothing to share.

Then one day he heard a man

who decided to stop for a chat.

The man said

"Hello, I'm Gabriel. And you are?"

The blind man was so stunned by conversation

that he forgot his real name.

"I'm the blind man," he said,

so used to his blindness

that he let it define his identity.

"Well, Blind Man," said Gabriel.

"Let me offer you a wish:

Anything you want,

it shall be yours.

You've led an honest life,

never taking, only earning.

You've gone through struggle and strife,

you deserve a reward.

So, if you want,

I can take away your blindness.

Just say the word, and you'll see."

The blind man thought

and thought some more.

He figured this man was lying.

But if he wasn't, if he was for real...

what would he wish for?

He sighed, a long, hard sound, and looked Gabriel

in the place where he thought his eyes would be.

"My only wish," the blind man said,

"Is for everyone to be as blind as me."

Every time I go to look for something, it is never there

I look under things, around things, over top of things, behind things, in front of things

but they're never there

Then someone else comes into the room and within two seconds

"Found it!"

I cannot begin to imagine how even as they question my eyesight

"Are you blind or something? How did you not see it?"

I ask myself the same thing.

Maybe I am, or maybe I'm just terrible at looking for stuff

or maybe they were messing with me

It wasn't actually there, they just said it was to make me look a fool

but no, that doesn't make sense why would they do that when they asked me to find it

Am I blind or just near-sighted?