Eyes

There was a tribe in times gone by
that had reached a state of civilization
where they felt they had pretty much seen it all.
New things sure happened all the time,
surprised them, filled them with a moment's wonder,
but there was so much discovery, novelty taking place,
that beyond a certain depth,
they remained untouched.

And one of them rose one day and said -
"We are given eyes that can see so much,
but are also a kind of curtain,
that blinds us to everything else there is."

For once everyone listened and agreed.
Over the next few days,
people poked their eyes or gouged them out
blinding themselves

and for a few days seeing the world as fresh,
before dying out as a whole,
out of purely practical, immaterial reasons.

Such a civilization truly existed,
why wouldn't it?