a long time ago i wrote miss helen keller

about how maybe we’d be better off

if no one could see.

then nobody would mind about

a person’s skin color.

i sent the letter to her when i first started looking after mr. field.

and now, in the mail comes this book,

the world i live in,

and it’s signed to me,

to leanora,

from miss helen keller

herself.

i curled right up

and started reading

and my chores weren’t even started

when daddy came home.