I often glance down when I walk when I’m not paying attention
To where I’m going.
One day I was walking around my neighborhood
And I glanced down, then up,
Then I drifted back down
And raised my stare up to a sharp tree branch
That lingers around my neighbors front yard
Dangerously close to my eye.
By sheer serendipity, I ducked out of its reach,
Though, I thought, what if I didn’t?
The branch could’ve gone right through my eye and jabbed my frontal lobe.
I would need to get an eyepatch,
Which frankly would look real cool but it would make horrible party talk.
I would be doing a start-of-school icebreaker, being too ashamed to explain
Where I got it.
I would be in a corner at homecoming or prom, too ashamed to say the stupid reason
Why I only have one eye.
It would be too embarrassing,
My lips would stay shut forever
Or maybe they wouldn’t because of my damaged frontal lobe.
I would blurt out everything
And make a complete fool of myself all the time
And no one would want to be my friend.
I would be so alone all the time.
The mean kids would laugh at me
And would say “How ARRRRRRRR you?”
And plunder my lunch money
And It would be a matter of time where I wouldn’t be able to take the solitude
And the abuse
And due to my damaged frontal lobe I wouldn’t be able to stop myself
And I would lunge at the mean kids
And they would come at me in self-defense
And a brawl would ensue in the hallways
And I would punch one of them
And he would punch back
And I wouldn’t be able to take the pain
And I’d reach right for his neck
And in order to save his life
That classmate would gouge my other eye out
And there I would be
Having two eyepatches now.
One for each eye…
I would look way less cool and would be even more embarrassed to say why I have
Two eyepatches.
I would have to get a cane after that incident
And I would tap my cane around
To know where I’m going.
One day when waving my cane around
I would whack one of the mean kids
And he would fight me again
But this time I can’t fight back.
They would throw me to the ground
And they would laugh
And I wouldn’t even be able to see where, or who they are.
I would drag my broken, aching, body
To my room
And stay there.
Forever.
I would be too scared to go outside.
My body would be aching from injuries I can’t see
For I can only feel,
And I would feel alone.
I would be so alone.
Forever.
I walked on a little longer,
And once I moved past the branch
I forgot that the tree,
The tree that almost ruined my life,
And took both my eyes,
And left me alone forever,
I forgot it even existed.