I wear self imposed blinders everyday
Reassurances meant to block out all uncertainties
Dreams of better kept out by the darkness of security
I cannot witness the dark side of not knowing
But neither can I be tempted by sumptuous paths of possibility
Occasionally the blinders slip, and I panic
Struggling to put them back on, I unwisely look around
The deft silence is the first thing I notice
Interrupted by staccato taps that drone into infinity
The sort of quiet nothing that creeps into your bones
Seeps through your pores and fills you
Any sound is a sharp intrusion
But also the sweetest of distractions
A momentary reminder that yes, we are alive
Blinking dead lights with shallow blues
Bounce off my face and dry my eyes
Around me my 3 walls are filled with servitude
With sheets of white spelling out my every action
Promising that here there will be no free thought
I stand, because I can no longer bear to sit
And I look around me at the other would be horses
Blinders affixed tight to their brows
Staring forward at their blinking lights
Echoing words to say they all feel the way I do
Without ever showing the symptoms
This is just how it is, I can hear them say
Empty words I’ve spewed myself
Anything to keep one from looking at the empty hole inside
To know that this is your future
As far flung as you can see, it is all you know
My neighbors ease up slightly out of their seat as I stand
Just the barest of excitement turning us into little gophers
Desperate for words from another human
Anything to stop the droning silence
Meaningless, empty forays into human commune
We sink back into our small prisons
Affix again the blinders
And like little cicadas
We fill the air with our droning taps
