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      March 29, 2022Mathura Man Sets Record by Staring at Sun for Over an HourGus Peterson

      Seventy and retired
      it comes to this—
      apertures white as snow,
      the comforting dark.
      Out of sight, out of mind.
      The tired engine’s bark
      and burp of black
      fireworks he saw explode
      once like a profusion
      of lotus across night.
      And this summer’s
      sun softened streets?
      Cool river mud
      between boyhood toes.
      He does this unblinking.
      Because it hurts,
      the light that bounces
      off this world.
      We squint and squint,
      trying to adjust,
      not so much to shut out
      as look past it.

      from Poets Respond

      Gus Peterson

      “I heard this story mentioned in passing on the radio driving into town today. Although a few months old, I had to see if it was true. I’m still not sure it is. But after such a long dark pandemic winter indoors in Maine my eyes still haven’t adjusted to the brilliance of even a partly sunny day. But I can understand the impulse to not want to see at times.”

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