They say 

 

They say 

You can tell 

A lot 

About a person 

By the shoes 

They wear 

And maybe you 

Can 

Or maybe that’s

Just what we 

Like to call

Poetic license 

Something to do 

With good old Atticus 

And his moccasins

 

But lately 

I’ve come to thinking 

You can tell 

A lot about 

A person 

By the glasses 

They wear

Should they wear them 

At all

And there’s something in

That too 

For some people 

Who should wear glasses 

Don’t 

I’ve a friend

Who won’t 

And that’s 

Down to vanity 

And surely 

In that 

There is a thing

About people 

Not being able to see 

Whilst worrying 

About what  

Those who can see 

Use their eyes 

To judge 

Instead of seeing 

What’s in front 

Of them 

 

I digress 

 

There is a boy 

Who sits 

At times 

In the learning cupboard

In front of me 

And should 

National health glasses 

Still be a thing 

He would certainly 

Wear those 

And they would be taped up

 

Such things 

No longer 

Exist 

Yet he’s managed to find 

Something very similar

Just lacking the

tortoise shell

 

And as I stare 

I wonder 

If he can 

See 

At all

His glasses 

Could not be 

Less clear 

There are smudges 

Of finger prints

And dust

And grime 

And it seems 

To trouble him 

Not a jot

Though what he sees 

And how he sees 

And what his world 

Looks like 

I imagine is

So different to anything 

That I see 

That his glasses

Probably 

Don’t matter 

At all

 

And should you meet 

Him

I suppose 

What you wouldn’t see

Is the absence of his

Mum

And the mix up

Of his family 

And the missing fingers

Of his dad’s 

Recently

Exploded 

Right hand

 

And I wonder 

What his son 

Saw 

And indeed

What he saw 

Or thought 

As he held 

A firework 

In

His soon to be 

Fingerless hand 

Out of a window 

And didn’t see 

To let go 

Before it exploded

Before the dirty

Windows 

Of his son’s 

Eyes 

 

And we wonder 

Sometimes 

Why 

These children 

Struggle 

To sit in class 

To concentrate 

To see the world 

As the unseeing 

Like to teach 

 

And yet 

They say 

Seeing is believing 

Those who set 

What the others 

Have to teach 

 

They haven’t got 

A 

Clue