Playing Blind

You used to play at being blind--
Now you are blind--you used to say:
“Play I am blind and help me find
Where the gate opens on the way.”

I laughed at you, we laughed together
When you were playing blind, your staff
My walking cane of varnished leather--
Now you are blind and still you laugh.

You sit beneath the reading lamp
With long lashed eyelids closed and pale
And make me read you Riley’s Tramp,
And Grimm and many a fairy tale.

Sometimes I stop--you see I choke
Before the tale is done by half--
One’s eyes blur from tobacco smoke--
I cannot laugh now when you laugh.