Lumbago awakened me in tears
of pain and fear of intensifying
acuteness, worsening condition
compelling mind to impose
therapeutical distraction,
persuading fantasy to create
spontaneous cuttings of pictures,
papers, magazines, old national
geographic dreams scopelessly selected
waiting on ideas to sparkle a theme
from coffee, cigarettes and analgesics.
Human evolution standing behind bars,
as I ponder on the meaning not
of the artwork but its making,
for I have no walls to hang
the sticky assemblage and haven’t
had them for a while. Used to clothes
in suitcases, books on other people’s
shelves, memories in shoeboxes,
the essence of my being in a body.
Oh walls! So longed for by humanity
urging to erect, building distance one
brick at the time, compartmentalising
individuals looking for pseudo shelter
under roofs, spurious safety behind
ramparts, four to enclose shame
for their actions, inconsiderate
behaviour of the willingly blind.
Yet what if there weren’t any walls?
People unable to neglect the sorrow
of their neighbours for they’re standing,
just by them, no drawing the curtains
no locking the doors, no closing
the gates. People inhabiting open
landscapes, bonded by necessity to engage
in living together, for unity is strength.
No wonder why our kind is so fragile today.
[Featured image: Human evolution standing behind bars by Aurora Kastanias]