Poetry competition First Prize: Jill Munro – “Iris Pupil” | Arvon

Poetry competition First Prize: Jill Munro – “Iris Pupil”

18 Jul 2019 / News

two eyes

Iris/pupil

 

With my eyes shut it could be easy

to believe I am white-stick blind,

hidden in the dark pool of lids

 

closed over diagram parts labelled

in science labs that smelt of Bunsen burners:

the iris/pupil, the white sclera, vitreous humor

 

spilling from the sheep’s eye

I dissected with a blade. How my hand trembled,

how I am glad hers didn’t ─

 

the Spanish surgeon who sliced

into my eye to re-paste the retina

like wallpaper, pin it with a gas bubble,

 

start rods and cones back to work again,

so those dozens of black fly floaters, disco-light

flashes that revealed my detachment

 

could clear, like motes disappeared from sunrays.

I open my eyes, view clearly through

my kitchen window the return of a golden-eyed flock.

 

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