Thursday, April 2, 2015

Afterimages on a computer screen



I almost called her over
from where she spooned oatmeal
into her mouth in front of her
computer screen
in the other room.
A blotch - irregular,
the color of a prepared blood-stained
slide, ready for my father’s microscope,
possibly out of date,
since he is no longer around
to read this,
like the floater I watched
in my left eye
off the starboard wing,
my mother handing me
lifesavers to keep me quiet --
hovers over the letters and words
that I am trying to affix to a
digital piece of paper
here in the study.

A shadow fringe, off white
rectangle, the bottom of the page
does not exist in any dimension,
but still the top half
appears to elevate slightly
on Word.doc slate blue,
completing the illusion
that I might have something
to say.

As I stared into the screen,
suddenly iridescent bubbles
appeared and bounced
perfectly round against
each other, and round, so round,
clustering like too perfect cherry
tomatoes in rectangular corners,
still eternally fresh
from last summer’s garden,
laying bare out my window,
some salad greens planted.

I looked up.
Again, the sun, behind me as sure
as it comes up in the east,
just past the vernal equinox,
reflects straight through my right eye
to my startled brain
from the upstairs window
in the brown brick house
across the back fence.
I faced the sunrise,
nearly due west.
It was as close to a miracle
as I was likely to see
before lunch,
probably.

2 comments:

Trix said...

Hi Bert,
Make sure you don't have a vitreous tear. I had one a couple of years ago. They like to repair it right away to prevent detachment. I saw half moons, but some people see an increase in floaters, flashes, etc. --Trix

Bert Haverkate-Ens said...

For the record, my eyes are aging but not torn. My reflexes may be slowing. I still couldn't catch the afterimage on my computer screen with my hand. And my mind is in some doubt. Why would I even try? Thanks for checking, Trix.