Month: December 2020

They sell us scenarios
Not specifics

We may think we’re getting a Wall
Or forgiven loans.
But what we get is the illusion of safety
The feeling of security and support.

Because they want us to think we need them.
When most things are fine enough
Before our minds start chattering with worry.

Because story tellers paint a dangerous world.
But the true danger is believing them
And giving them more control
So they can take care of us.

Real leaders empower you to do things.
They don’t take power in order to do so.

Fairy tales are nice.
But they aren’t the foundation of living life.

The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror.

And each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say sit here, eat.

You will love again the stranger who was yourself.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes.

Peel your own image from the mirror. Sit.

Feast on your life.

By Derek Walcott, “Love after love”