Take me to another world….
Take me where you’re going now - to that other world. Bae Suah
There is another world and it is in this one. Paul Eluard
There are words we speak, soft as water,
words so soft they cannot hear themselves,
soft words so strong, so fluent, they force our fears to run,
words that glide from the slopes of our crying.
Take us to another world.
We’ll go.
Take us, take us.
We will go.
We say these words to each other.
They are more than words. We will go.
We are not saying these words
to those who want to sell us the tickets
and want us
to sell our souls.
We are not saying these words
to ghosts who guard and keep us.
We are not saying these words to those who harm us
and claim to heal us.
We are not saying these words to those who despise us.
or those who fear us,
(for nothing scares the bjeezus out of the oppressor
more than when the despised get organised!).
We are not saying these words to those who exploit us and exclude us,
those who demonise and degrade us,
those who crush and curse us,
those who want to buy us and disburse us.
We are not saying these words to those who shun us, those who shame us,
those who kill us, those who maim us.
We are saying them
to each other.
We are saying them
to ourselves.
Take us to another world.
We’ll go.
Take us, take us.
We will go.
We are saying them not because we want to flee
but because we want to fight.
And though we are sometimes frightened,
we are stronger than that which haunts us.
And though there are those who give up on us
we will not give up.
And though there are those who tell us to be patient,
promising that a world will trickle down,
we will not wait for crumbs,
we will take what is ours.
And though we often cannot hear ourselves,
we hear each other
and in hearing each other,
we hear ourselves.
And though here is where the world is ending,
here is where another is beginning.
And though we are so tired we cannot walk,
we are carried by each other
to another world,
the one we’re making here.
Dr John Falzon
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