A POEM TO SEE BY

I read Vikram Seth’s poem, “All You Who Sleep Tonight,” to my sightless one.

I read it last.

After a silence, she said, “And you were not afraid to read that to me. Thank you. Good night, my friend.”

My thanks to you.

FRED SCIFERS

DOWNEY

Scifers is a volunteer reader for a blind woman. The poem he refers to is reprinted below:

All you who sleep tonight

Far from the ones you love

No hand to left or right,

And emptiness above--

Know that you aren’t alone,

The whole world shares your tears,

some for two nights or one,

And some for all their years.