"...they had their faces twisted toward their haunches
and found it necessary to walk backward,
because they could not see ahead of them.
... and since he wanted so to see ahead,
he looks behind and walks a backward path. "
- Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto XX, lines 13–15 and 38–39, Mandelbaum translation
saints avoid our eyes
this place reeks of denial
bright mirrors glare back