Some days, virtually everything within my line of sight appears dull, as if bleached by the sun or treated with whitewash. Like an old, weather-beaten wooden fence painted with a thin mixture of lime and water, every image on those days seems dimmed by an invisible haze. Or viewed through an ancient metal window screen that’s worn and dusty…a light breeze away from total collapse. I have, for years, blamed my eyes for the decay in my vision. But my eyes are not entirely responsible. Pollen and heat and the dust and smoke rising from rice fields set ablaze after harvest contribute. A few years ago, while driving through acres and acres of corn fields in the mid-west, i watched the pollen and harvest dust tint the sky beige. I recall thinking that, if I could scratch my fingernails across the sky, I could have left marks…like a blackboard overburdened with chalk.
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