B! @ RISD

An orb of a man looks up at the sky: A man as defined by sentient being and an orb merely because of the fact that his is comprised of an eyeball. He(1) chooses to look at the sky but not by choice. He occupies a wormhole in the ground (not the celestial kind, although to him it would not particularly matter). How he got to preside at this location, he does not know. At the moment of his first consciousness(2) he was just there. His domicile, the former habitat of a rather large earthworm that he presumed had departed for he had not ever seen it, was an elaborate network of underground tunnels, although the word tunnel perhaps gives the wrong mental image. These tunnels were not much more than the loosened loam that worked its way through the interior length of the worm as it crawled. That was enough for our globular protagonist to push his way through the softened earth and carve out a dwelling for himself.

How we come to find our eyeball looking up at the sky is a tragic story. Being underground, the eyeball did not realize his true aptitude. He would roll his round body through the tunnels of gritty soil, his viscous tendencies not particularly suited for subterranean living, having to stop and sit every couple of hours to wait until he secreted enough tears to shed the layer of grime that would cake to his body. Of course, being underground he had never seen. The dense mass of the earth prevented any photon of light from ever entering his prismatic being. However, being ignorant of the situation, he lead a pointlessly content life exploring the infinite network left behind by the anonymous worm until one fateful day. Although, perhaps it was two fateful days that I refer to. The first fateful day we know little about. It was the day the worm decided to leave the confines of the subterranean landscape. Reasons unknown, the worm dug itself up and straight out of the ground. Who knows if this action was under treacherous terms and foul play or whether the personality of the worm included a streak of spontaneity. All we know is that one day the worm left. The next fateful day was months, maybe years later when our rolling organ, lead by echos of the forlorned worm, followed the same path to the surface but before he could popped straight out of the ground, he hit a rock wedging him against the side of the tunnel. This was not an uncommon occurrence. In fact, this happened quite often so he thought nothing of it. But, this was not a common occurance. He was so near the surface of the ground that he in fact broke through but it was his rear end that was sticking out into the clear un-"soiled" air. Not having visual senses on the back side he did not realize and worked at getting free and backing back down the tunnel. It took some effort but he unbounded himself and rolled away from the rock. When he got a half turn down the way he came, a peculiar thing happened. He saw a streak of light through the hole he created with his butt down the tunnel, through his cornea, past his iris and into his consciousness. This might not be that peculiar to us who see obsesively but for this eyeball, it was the realization of why he existed... to see. Of course being down the tunnel away from the source of the light, he could only see the the edges of the tunnel itself. He needed to get closer but if he rolled forward he would be butt forward again. He rolled back down the tunnel and then forward again only to be met with the same problem. He rolled back down and roll to the right down another tunnel and then back to the original tunnel up to the hole again but now his side was facing the hole. He repeatedly rolled himself down tunnel after tunnel and looping back to the source of the light until finally his cornea was pointed out the hole, slightly skewed to the left but good enough to see out into a whole new visual realm... a world where he belonged, a world where he couldn't get to. Of course, being just one eye, fixed in his location, he could not see like we do. Not with depth perception. What he saw from his vantage point was a strange world of grass, flowers and decaying buildings. But the sky! The sky was what burned in his mind. Ever changing, he thought he could stare at the sky forever. And that is what he did. Afraid that if he left back into the darkness he would never see again but trapped by the diameter of his body in relation to the tunnel opening, he remained there pinned up against the rock, knowing he belongs to the world of the visual but all he can do is peer intently.

Notes:
1. I refer to him in the masculine form throughout this writing only because if given the opportunity between man, woman or beast, this organ would much prefer to fixedly gaze at the female form with such intensity that only an eyeball with no eyelid could administer. I can only imagine that this eyeball fetishes the gentle curves of silky feminine legs for an eyeball is only an inch in stature. Of course in actuality, an eyeball has no gender.

2. We are unsure if there was a consciousness he was assimilated with at an earlier time, but it is his own consciousness that we refer to here.