Actor and singer Franc D’Ambrosio has performed as the lead in The Phantom of the Opera thousands of times, for millions of people. And he’s achieved this momentous fame without the ability to read music. D’Ambrosio has dyslexia.

Welcome innocent. Born into this world

from the warm abyss that was once your only home.

Virgin sensations inundated with light and noise, you are still blind.

But may you feel the sun and follow it. Follow it.

Seated in plain sight he is invisible

The passersby halt for a moment to note

That something might be there, but they

Aren’t really sure.

She pauses a moment longer than most.

They tell us we have options innumerable

An unseen multiple choice test, and even

Better - we do the grading. We set the rubric.

But some choices are traps and each time

Editor's note: Ninad Bhat's "Patience" took second place in the Synapse Storytelling Contest creative writing, poetry category.

The room is encased in silence

Threads of conversation untwined for a moment

The Native Health Elective Coordinators, Association of Native American Medical Students, & Native American Heritage Month Planning Committee present a screening of Amá, a documentaryabout the forced sterilization of Native American women in t