In Transit

(a poem dedicated to Marc from WUSC)

October 10, 1998.

The Buddhists say

that each flame is from the same

Fire.

And so here we are again

inbetween the oceans and the earth

and the endless sky

moving from Oblivion to Oblivion

our lives only agitations in space

born from thought to actualization

solids change, nations struggle

and people are born and born again

and as the sea moves the land

so our soul moves our body and

billions of atoms stir for an instant

believing they are people

on a plane beween Paris and Saigon

and nobody knows us

except the inscrutable stars.

And in our journey between birth and death

we dare not stop

because the real world might crowd in on us

as real as a boy in the Saigon street

pulling himself on a cart

his legs bent behind his back

a child twisted beyond human recognition.

And I remember the lepers in Calcutta

their fingers gone

sometimes laughing with uncontrollable joy

which brings tears to my eyes today

because we are they as we say "Namaste"

and we, like them, only want to be seen.

In Calcutta there were old eyes then

watching over the souls and beating hearts

and the sweet cranky voice

of Mother Teresa

bringing hope to the street

huddled under tents

as tourists washed

the leper's feet.

We only kill and fear and hurt and take

because we don't know who we are.

But just as the Calcutta leper said "Namaste"

the Saigon cycle driver shrugged and laughed and said,

"No problem."

And so we are the same

and bow to the other

and having shared our souls

smile and walk away.

Friendship comes

as we ride on the back of the motorcycle

of a man we have never met

and know for an instant that our lives are entwined

by the fear of mutual destruction

and then we are friends.

And here, on this airplane,

inbetween the Universes of the unborn and the dead

our transit only an instant of separation

between those two points

I nod and smile at an ancient man.

And he understands my meaning

and smiling, nods back.

a poem

by

Paul Bourgeois