Blindfold by Puma Perl

Vivid pinks
and yellows
slip in
between the slats

Half asleep,
I grab the phone
Raise the shade
Take pictures
of the rising sun

Thousands of mornings
Thousands of photographs

I no longer bother
to wear my glasses
Sometimes
I stick the camera
out the window
without looking,
sensing
the general direction

Hoping
that it doesn’t fall
as I move my thumb
away from the lens

You see
with your brain,
not your eyes

Maybe, 
if I wear
a blindfold
while I write,
poems,
astonishing as
sunrises,
will magically
appear.

Photo by Ellen Berman

Puma Perl is a poet and writer, with five solo collections in print. The most recent is Birthdays Before and After (Beyond Baroque Books, 2019.) She is the producer/creator of Puma’s  Pandemonium, which brings spoken word together with rock and roll, and she performs regularly with her band Puma Perl and Friends. She’s received three New York Press Association awards in recognition of her journalism, and is the recipient of the 2016 Acker Award in the category of writing.