Copyright © 2009 Ernest Bloom.
Before there is a wall
There is no notion of a wall.
At first bricks do not fly toward
An undreamt idea, but
Once the self-assembly commences,
Then slowly, slowly the bricks fill in
Their niches, occupying their standardized
Parts places in the firmament against
Fearful new ideas, coming in
Faster as the façade expands.
They are bound together
Not against suffering,
Not in the name of truth or beauty
Or justice, not out of some cherished
Moral principle or design, but only
To be in the presence of other
Uncritical bricks.
Ha, I've just seen a news flash about the fall of the Berlin Wall celebrations. Interesting how you present the bricks in the end as human, this personification kind of took me off guard but it's only logical come to think of it. Guess that would make those ppl brickheads. Indeed, it's easier to convince men to passivity and conservatism than into action and revolution and when they do get to action and get hold of the torches and swords and Molotov cocktails, it's more than often not quite the just and beautiful cause or ideology the Romantics and Utopians had in mind. Let's face it- money makes the world go round.
ReplyDeletehm i'd not linked this to berlin before you mentioned it.
ReplyDeleteidk if money makes the world go round, but it's human hearts and spirits that count in my book.