Year one: Sightless by Shelley Abbey

I am pitied because I am sightless;

Ignorance! Their words are condescending!

But of them I can happily confess

That for a long time, I have been past caring.

I pity others who witness life’s woes,

The wars that claim souls, innocence is lost

A person’s beauty, expunged by their foes:

O such a waste! Incalculable cost!

I know that beauty does not age with time

And that loving souls see more than th’ eyes,

So, in pitying their ignorance, their crimes,

I, in tolerance, show that I am wise.

But my only regret in this dark life,

Is that I cannot look upon my wife.