Blind Spot


On the retina
where optic nerve exits,
in a rearview mirror
the region where
cars passing do not appear,
the child I had not known
I am unable to see:

Helen. She died
weeks before I was born,
her afterimage other than
who I am, but present
nevertheless. She resides
where memory cannot find her
and hints at blindness.


Patricia S. Cook lives in Mt. Kisco, New York. For many years besides teaching English, she elicited poems from children by reading good poetry often presented as riddles (with some element they had to fill in) grouped by themes and /or connected to music or some other form of the arts or natural artifacts. Realizing one day that no one could pay her enough to mentor another child through a research paper, she now concentrates on what she loves -- poetry.