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Floaters

© 1995 by Joan Papalia-Eisert

Slim chances
in my fat eyes
accumulate like daily dust
in anything ornate

They're in every striation of my irises
every movement of the vitreous gel
until all i can see
is the worst that can happen

My mother told me
that when i was born
the nurse said 
i had a blue veil over my  head
That cellular debris
would give me second sight

Later, in the west end ghetto
an italian in a sunday suit
peered at me in the back seat
of my father¹s car
and told me about my eyes

He couldn't see
they were crowded already
My only cognition has been

on an imageless future


Floaters
Uncrowned Queens Institute, Inc. August 27, 2026
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