Poem by Ibrahim Honjo
NEW MILKY WAY
Can you imagine how long they’ lived
Kant, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
still alive are Doctor Zhivago
and Anna Karenina, and many others
whom we do not meet on the streets
I am a descendant of old wise men
I am lost between two constellations
and my name is not found in any written records
all wise men are born the same way
first they impose wisdom, then they send it to people
their knowledge lives within people and is written in many books
I will vainly go through all the written and the unwritten
including the eternally unfinished book of wise men
they buried me with my great-grandparents a long time ago
in some deserted books and geographical atlases
where the desert winds blew
making dunes on which
the gold sun and silver moon beamed
creating a new Milky Way between galaxies never ending
never ending because we will meet halfway
between here and there
I will not mention your names in the sand
that would not rise above the poem
Ibrahim Honjo, from my book “HOW TO TOUCH ETERNITY DOWN THE MAHALLA”
