A Flash
I described the painted saints,
carved animal heads on pews
in a medieval church.
I’m going through hell, you said,
and questioned whether loss of hearing
was worse than losing sight. You knew a woman
blind and deaf who’d learned to speak:
with balloons in her mouth, she began to utter vowels.
I tried to distract by mentioning your passion
for foreign languages: the Dutch for house,
French for sky, German for apple.
Just then a bird flashed past the lake –
you raised your head: Don’t tell me!
Beyond your turmoil of thoughts
a slow-ascending spiral of recognition:
A kingfisher!
And it was as if
intuition and truth
had walked through the same door.
Your face shone with the thrill of it.