Common Fears

The cold air blew outside the house,
inside we shared solitude and distance.
You sat in one corner on the chair I gave you, 
while bricks and stones between us
enhanced the reality of our isolation.

All the facts and reasonable thoughts
hung in the air; heavenly eternal.
All that we screamed at each other
now whispered, continuously, inside our mind: 
reasons, facts, doubts and lies
fused together inseparably.

As real as the cold air outside
we threw words around unconcerned, 
anguishing only to diminish the anger, 
and as sure as if it should have been: 
we, who once were unbreakable,
had already made reality
out of all the fears,
we ironically shared all those years. 

A Brick

Alone

you get to decide

where a brick goes:

you can put it here

you can put it there.

In your hands,

a brick is free

to be anything or nothing.

A poet,

from the baltic sea,

found grandiose desires

in each brick he saw,

and when he parted this life,

he had not a brick to show;

yet his structures

will outlast us all.

If you have

all that you small soul desires,

you can place a brick

behind your front door,

to prevent someone

from taking your possessions.

I wish

that bricks were free

to be anything they desire,

God,

made it eternal,                                                                                                       

and cursed man with free will 

and infinite crossroads

with no undergrowth;

only plenitude.

With so many roads ahead,

man despairs,

and in doubt,

grabs a brick

and set his roots 

here, there,

anywhere:

creates a village, meets a girl

makes other men

to sacrifice for.

Nothing makes a man prouder

than sacrificing for a new generation:

among all the species,

man is the only one

that can exude heroism

while in full retreat.

The bible

talks about man

but it says nothing about bricks:

man was created

at God’s own image;

but man perishes

in a well of uncertainty,

bricks are everywhere:

solid, determined, eternal.

At the end of his life  

every man should have one brick

to leave behind,

somewhere,

for a child to find.

Kurt Vonnegut - Life