Here’s to every guide dog in all the airports, for whom the world’s suitcases are thrilling! The man with the Green Bay Packers jersey holds a duffle, and hidden among his socks is a true German sausage, smuggled all the way from Wiesbaden. And the tall woman with the “Gibson Girl” hat, who owns a vintage clothing store in upstate, New York, she has a sachet of lavender in her tiny alligator handbag. There are too many smells! The baby with ears moistened by kisses! The nourishing smell of shoes!
I’m just trying to find my departure gate. But my dog knows everything. The security man smells like fragments of a meteor; the backpack on the conveyer says its owner just slept with a perfect stranger. My dog may, or may not know that I can’t see, but she surely understands that I’m immune to the wonders around us.
–from What a Dog Can Do
forthcoming from Simon and Schuster
Stephen Kuusisto
Planet of the Blind 