African Sight

Women of dignity with regal deportment
wrapped in cloth of pulsating hues
heads and bodies
clashing geometric

senses scream as splashes of color
emerge from smoky haze
billboards peeling in the heat
congratulating the President on his birthday

Women delousing wide eyed children
men squatting together along the road
watching the slow groan of traffic
fingering prayer beads

In the market tables sag
under the weight of muddy angel fish
dead sea rays, piles of snapper
shoes crunching over dried fish scales

Halal butchered beef and goat
hang from rusty hooks
a severed cow’s head
abuzz with feeding flies

as the old and young blind
are lead through the marketplace
sightless teens grasp each other’s shirt
as they dare to cross the dusty road.

,

Nearly forty million of the people alive today are blind, and almost six times that many are severely visually impaired. The vast majority of blindness occurs in the developing world, particularly Africa, due largely to cataracts, the clouding of the lens within the eye.  Other preventable causes are River Blindness and Trachoma.  While the latter diseases are preventable (clean water is the issue)  there is a growing effort to teach skilled nurses and health practitioners in these countries, non-doctors, to remove cataracts; a relatively simple procedure that takes minutes in the West.  Further information is available at:

http://helpmesee.org/

I lived on the horn of Africa for two years in my youth.  I have seen the unnecessary blindness.  I was blind for about a month four years ago.  Now I see.

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