It's Still Life

An Ekphrastic Poem based on John Everett Millais’s painting “The Blind Girl“

The Girl With Blind Eyes

This girl has eyes that only see
the dark side of the sun. Her eyes
are sunken shadows, telling her
that she lives in a grand cathedral
with spires, old saints and candles.
But everyone says her eyes lie.
They say she lives in an outbuild
and sleeps on hay bales with oxen.

But her blind eyes see otherwise
because she hears with her eyes.

She hears wind in the wheat,
and knows when it’s ripe, and
she hears crows and knows
their eyes taunt one another.
And she hears music drift soft
through her fingers, and knows
it’s a full moon when owls hoot.
Her eyes are as full as moons.

And her blind eyes see everything,
except that butterfly on her sleeve.

Written for Visual Verse’s May Anthology.  AI Digital Artwork is created using Midjourney. Imagery and poems ©Misky 2023