Blindsight
 
A blind man walks an obstacle course
without bumping into a thing
 
they call it blindsight
when the brain interprets
what the eye doesn’t know it sees
 
like telescopes picking up light specks from space
or computers processing data for years
unattended except by spiders
 
who if they could read would know that at 11:47 am
a new planet was discovered
moving away from Earth at great speed
 
covered in things that look like cities


* Vanessa Gebbie is author of Words from a Glass Bubble and contributing editor to Short Circuit, a Guide to the Art of the Short Story (both Salt Publishing). www.vanessagebbie.com