Poem on a National Holiday

How is it satisfied

I asked       clapping my hands violently

and waving

in fear that I would miss the parade

I might have lost my sight

without noticing

Gone on imagining

I saw the same linked-up rooms I moved through

Or some cool gray space

where a silence could be made

I wanted a little animal

to climb inside it cleanly

I was asking to be left alone

but in answer the sun shone brighter