For I had wished to rip out my eyes

[Do not close your eyes,
but imagine them so.]

Imagine Democritus,
as he took his sight,
as he reached
with his index and thumb,
the palm of his hand eclipsing
the lens of his Eye.
Did he hesitate? Did he keep
his eye open
as his fingers curled
into its socket.
Was the final image
of his sight, etched by light
into his brain?
But then,
feel the fire,
the blazing, scorching, molten
pain
of blinding light, here a precursor to
optical blindness. Your retina peeled,
ripped, ruptured and mangled onto the
vitreous body of
the Eye.

The optic nerve fires phantom images,
remnants of sight,
into the brain.