Hello, everyone.
Today, I’ve a guest post from author and poet Abbie Johnson Taylor.
Here she is with her interesting and thought-provoking poem and backstory.
Watching The Wizard of Oz in Kansas
Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor

In a Topeka rehab center for the blind,
trying to learn cane travel, daily living, Braille,
our days regulated by buzzers, bells, rules,
in a dorm basement TV room,
we follow Dorothy’s adventures in OZ.

Spellbound, as she traverses the yellow brick road,
rescues a scarecrow from a pole,
oils a rusted tin man,
puts a cowardly lion in his place,
we accompany her through the Emerald City gates,
hope she gets what we want,
to click heels and go home.
***
In the summer of 1981, I attended an eight-week college prep program at a rehabilitation facility for the blind in Topeka, Kansas. Recently reading a poem, “Watching the Wizard of Oz in Prison” in Rattle, a poetry magazine, triggered emotions about my experience.

I may as well have been incarcerated because of the regimented lifestyle there. The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorite movies when I was growing up. I could identify with Dorothy’s wish to go home, not to mention that the movie starts and ends in Kansas.

I did acquire some valuable mobility and slate and stylus training, which I could have received here in Wyoming if I’d known such services existed. But my Vocational Rehabilitation counselor here in Sheridan had other ideas, no doubt wanting to support out-of-state rehabilitation centers. You can read the poem that inspired mine at the link below.

Watching the Wizard of Oz in Prison by Ace Boggess – Rattle: Poetry
https://rattle.com/watching-the-wizard-of-oz-in-prison-by-ace-boggess/

About the Author

Abbie Johnson Taylor has published three novels, two poetry collections, a memoir, and a collection of short stories. Her work has appeared in The Weekly Avocet, Magnets and Ladders, and other publications.
She is visually impaired and lives in Sheridan, Wyoming, with her robotic cat Joy, where she worked as a registered music therapist with nursing home residents and in other facilities. She also cared for her late husband, who was totally blind and suffered two paralyzing strokes after they were married. This is the subject of her memoir and many of her poems.
Visit her Website.