Poetry submission: A stranger’s perspective on my vision loss experience

I’ve submitted a poetry submission and I’m hoping it will get published to provide a patient’s perspective on losing their vision. I had 30 minutes to write and this is what I felt deep down inside during a time when I was learning how to grow stem cells and it’s been a little over a decade since I’ve cultured cells. I was getting critiqued without compassion and felt defensive because yes I will defend myself. I’ve also had a few people yelling at me about whether I was just “using that cane as a prop” because I was able to see when it was fully lit versus when it was dimly lit.

What helps me the most during those times is to understand that people are projecting their frustrations onto me. So it’s not me who’s the problem, but it’s their inability to love and find compassion within themselves. Because so many of us have gone unloved for so long that we have forgotten to do it.