Truth first came gently on a cold school night
And said, “all that’s living will die. To know yourself, first know I.”
For a bit I thought of death and cried
And then stopped quickly. Abruptly. And said,
“Go away, I’m fine”
And shut my heart so truth couldn’t come back
And put stories of myself in an old backpack
And walked out in the stars to that place trains would chug
And pushed down pain
With a confident stare,
A shrug
And clambered on the carriage
And raced out fast into the night
And celebrated in vain: I was a passenger to life
Years passed; the bag stayed close and grew,
Outside was passing in a whirr while we laughed and drank spirits
Where we didn’t know our own
And bonds with money and people
began to feel like home
Life grew louder as we filled it right up
And only left space for the things
that we called grown up
And we were nice mostly, because it seemed like the
right thing to do
But when vulnerability came close
We would laugh, “Fuck you”
God came back in a moment of quiet and asked,
“are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
I said. And no tears came.
And denial carried on.
I kept telling myself then,
“You belong, you belong”
And people I thought were permanent left.
And when my health was bad, I shouted – “theft”.
My heart broke too, but I stayed somehow windswept
And filled a void with new glitter
Though I cried to one I loved, who lied,
And heard an echo with no reply
And in the quiet, god said
“you won’t find forever on this ride”
And I said,
“Go away, I’m fine”
Life moved. I kept my eyes off truth
And the ground became noisier
The carriage became busier
And my thoughts became louder,
and someone died
Sitting right beside me. Mid sentence.
Right at the comma,
where you were supposed to take a breath
And people near me
Who I called dear to me
All seemed to subside
Just a bag of bullshit stories at my side...
And god said,
“Do you want to know me yet?”
I said, “I’m fine”
but I began to lose my mind.
I held; tried to cling
To every fading worldly thing
Like confetti –
You can’t build a home on confetti.
And finally, at the final straw
I had everything I could have wanted in the world –
But loss kept coming,
and the train tracks kept drumming,
I cried, “Get me off this goddamn ride”
And god came back and stopped the train
I clambered out then in the pouring rain,
And truth spoke,
“Leave the bag behind.
All you are is not your mind
Come with nothing and follow me
And we walked
And at that slow, slow pace.
I could suddenly see
The cosmos I had never touched
and the star grass I had never brushed
I saw the moon again and it saw me
And I knew none of them would stay
Neither would night when came the day
But I was here
And death seemed close and far
And it was beautiful and intimate:
That we were nothing but an inch apart
Truth held me in a big, big wave
As I opened then my hollow cave
And let god pour right through my ribs
Between my lungs, right to my hips and
My feet felt the ground that seemed now strong
And god said, “you know me”
I said, “I do”
“I am nothing but a piece of you”
Poem from, "From Dust" (book launching soon) Artwork by local Zimbabwean Artist, Phineas Chisango
Comments