Every tunnel can be like a birth –
think of it – every tunnel!
You emerge in a different place
in alternative light.
Just avoid going back to your berth,
running down your runnel.
Catch the wind and escape into space;
take delight in your flight.
Every entrance inside can entrance –
inner spaces are vast –
While a path to yourself is a mere aside,
it can feel like an end.
Every exit can give you a chance
to escape from the past.
Through a tunnel you pass outside,
to expand and extend.
A sudden smile amidst the hurried crowd,
in dull routine – imagination’s spark,
in place of fear – laughing out loud…
small lights are so precious in the dark!
When the heavens are reflected in the depths –
throw a rock, watch the transformation.
Isn’t it more fun than mere reflection?
I come from a city
with people born on a blacklist.
I come from a country
which has since ceased to exist.
I come from a culture
where nothing is what it seems,
full of loud delusions and stifling truths,
where language conceals.
I grew on an ice flow that was cracking and breaking in spring.
I had to grow my roots wide.
So far that they reached different shores.
So strong that they gripped, and mauled, and changed the shoreline.
So solid that I became a bridge.
Now, bridges are never safe.
Never as safe as the solid land –
or at least they don’t seem to be.
They sway in the wind,
they rely on a few points of contact,
they have to strive just to stay in place.
You could transport a bridge to a safer place,
sell it like the proverbial Brooklyn Bridge
and make some cash on the way,
or move it for real –
to a safe harbour, out of the wind.
But even a broken bridge across the gap
has more purpose than a bridge on solid land,
it remains rooted in both shores,
forever a possibility.
All that we leave are footprints in the sand.
They fade in time. As everything, they end.
But as we look ahead and to the stars
we leave footprints to fade on moon and Mars.
It really helps if the range of your curiosity exceeds the diameter of your tunnel vision.
In the narrow space
between the burning heat of the depths and the cold fires of space
laughter is the bravest way to be.
