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Barnabas Oral's Sightless Game

He plays throughout the house at night 
a braille touch for his lack of sight
and dreams of all the crippled things 
with broken legs and shattered wings.

The bandage on his wounded eyes 
will be there ‘til the day he dies
and keep him in a darkened place 
with just a wet grin on his face.

The attic room that he called home 
was locked up tight, so he didn’t roam
but now that he has picked the locks 
he’s lurking in his stinking socks.

‘Twas Aunty Mae that shut him away 
to teach the evil boy just how to pray,
but he only tortured rodents and flies 
and used a pencil to gouge out his eyes.

So now he stumbles down the hall
and drags his nails across the wall
to find old Mae and very soon
play Blind Man’s Buff by the dying moon.

He gently opens her bedroom door
and listens to her gurgling snore
then lumbers towards her little bed
and strokes the grey hairs on her head.

With butterknife clutched hard in hand
it’s all unfolding as he planned
and with his blunted blade held high
he slams it into her left eye.

When old Mae shrieks and writhes in pain
he brings the curved blade down again
and opens up her right eyeball
as blood sprays on her floral shawl.

Barnabas smiles and deeply mumbles
as through his pockets he gently fumbles
and produces a bandage stained and old  
to fashion for her a new blindfold.




He wraps it round her head quite neatly
and tops it off with a bow tied sweetly
which keeps it tight and keeps it close
while tears of blood drip from her nose.

Aunty Mae is dragged up from her bed,
spun three times and then stopped dead
to stand alone in the middle of the room
while Barnabas hides, concealed in gloom.

‘Oh, Mae my sweet just listen to me,
now we’re both blind, as blind as can be
and the game is now even and honest and fair
so, follow my voice but be sure to take care’.

With whimpers and cries she limps in a swoon
as Barnabas whispers and warbles a tune
that lures the old woman out heel by toe   
into suffering, peril, and shadows of woe.

Her arms they flail, her hands they clutch
while she blunders about using only her touch,
yet Barnabas stands only just out of reach
and leers as he thinks of the game he will teach.

She yelps and swipes at the sound of his song
but Barnabas dodges and lunges head long 
out of her path as she tumbles and trips
and falls to the floor breaking both of her hips. 

With grace and care Mae is pulled to her feet,
embraced by her nephew with arms bittersweet 
then violently swung by her grand puppet master
and waltzed round the room going faster and faster.

They crash into walls and topple the chairs,
shatter the windows, knock a vase down the stairs,
but just as young Barnabas cooks further plans
poor Aunt Mae’s body goes limp in his hands.

‘Oh Mae, darling Mae we’ll try that once more
and play Blind Man’s Buff and dance ‘till we’re sore.
we’ll bleed and we’ll laugh, and we’ll laugh, and we’ll bleed
and in darkness you’ll follow, and I’ll surely lead’. 

So, all through the night they danced and played
and as the sun rose, they both gently swayed
to a song that he heard only inside his head
as he cradled his aunt who was broken and dead.

Copyright © Nick Ravenswood | Year Posted 2021

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