Today the challenge was to write a poem that uses lines that have a repetitive set-up. So I started my process wondering, and the poem began to write itself.

The Blind Man


I wonder 
exactly what I have 
in common with the blind man 
who lives on Crescent Street 
and the hip hop artist 
who plays at the club.

I wonder
what secrets we all hold 
hidden inside our mouths, 
behind our teeth, buried 
in the clear, translucent 
whiteness of our eyes.

I wonder
why making secrets seems 
so easy, but keeping 
them eats us up from the 
inside out; why certain 
things weigh more than we think.

I wonder
if we aren’t all like the 
blind man, seeing only
what we can touch with our
own two hands, believing
our own imagined truth.

I wonder
as I cross my fingers,
cross my arms over my
heart and take a deep breath
why, after all this time,
hope for change never dims.

—a draft poem by Carla Picklo Jordan

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 🤗