You tell me that you’re always sad;
you want to run away, but ask,
How can I run from myself?
I want to say you’re not alone;
lakhs, no crores are asking
questions just like this—
all over the world
rich and poor are asking them,
the children of refugees
and rulers are asking them,
academics and experts
are publishing reports about them,
pharmaceutical representatives,
psychiatrists, and self-help gurus
are making their living off of them.
This is not new, but it is urgent
and growing; and the darknessthat has fallen around us now
is just one sign of a larger,
grinding thing: we all sense
we’re approaching a rupture
that the old tricks of war,
debt and growth may finally
fail to delay—
and none of us can imagine
what lies beyond that horizon.
Friend, I can offer no clear
answer to your question,
but it has something to do
with solidarity and love,
how we’ll all have to
cross over together.