Abstruse

[poe]

Mother was afraid
she might go to hell;
never a real believer,
she faced mornings
like she faced father,
with sharp pins in her hair.
Sleep spoke a language
she refused to believe;
often awake in the middle
of the night, a blind cry
away from morning,
thinking about her old dishes,
her worn towels, shoes
she wanted but could not afford —
she dreamed a moving van
would save her; other nights
she dreamed her children’s faces
stared down at her from great heights.

I too found "blind cry" vexing. I like that you use the word "believe®",
twice, and I come to think this is very significant to the whole piece. So upon some reflection, then, "blind cry" which brings to mind,a far cry, is meant to vex, and perhaps quite important to the whole. Notice how it comes almost exactly in the middle of the poem. The last two lines come as the intermittent respite to her inability to believe.
poe