this harvest moon’s a swollen pinguecula

yellow-orange bulbous and tucked tight

against its shadow side like mine’s tucked

against my iris. the doctor says UV light

or dust and common in farmers or simply

susceptible people like me. I guess that’s

what you saw when you said there is a sadness

in your eyes. I said no that’s only tiredness but

knowing what I know now I’d say you must

have seen my eye web as the sadness I know

how to hide. I had to throw my contacts out

and in the morning walked home semi-blind.

I know the way but still felt scared. pure

pleasure blinks above the intersection as I drive.

 

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Kelsi Vanada is the author of Rare Earth. She holds an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa. She writes poems and translates from Spanish and collaboratively from Swedish. Since July 2018, she has worked as the Program Manager of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA).

 

“Good for You” first appeared in Babel Fish (TLR Vol.61 Issue 02).