| Today I can choose
between to talk about the weather
or to talk about what I am interested in.
I can choose between staying silent
and listen to what I already heard
a hundred times
or to say what I think.
I can choose between making an effort
to define my freedom
or simply let my freedom to follow
the current of nothingness.
I can decide today to stay in my shell
made of cotton and lies
or to go out in the world made of realities.
I can decide today If I live one more day
in which I hardly notice my existence
my intentions
my ideas
my feelings
my responsibilities
my desires for justice
my desires for peace
my brain.
But if I go out
I'll find out that there is a sick neighbor
and a little boy who is dying in the corner
and a mother who does not know how to be one
because no one ever took the time to teach her
and an old man with broken legs
and a teenager who agonize
in his own sheet and vomit
because the door to paradise was locked.
And the other girl who is aborting without knowing
because she was told that to have a baby is expensive
that to live is very expensive
that to love is even more expensive
that everything we do has a price tag.
Who takes responsibility for such monstrosity?
What type of repugnant system is this one?
What is it then the price to rebel against it?
I am interested in paying it.
It is a high price, I was told
and you have to have the guts to start
because every step you take
will liberate you and will also liberate others.
But it will not be without enormous resistance
You will become a stranger for those who know you
a dissident for the cowards
a thorn on the side for the powerful
a big joke for the intellectuals
a naïve one for the cynics.
You will be incomprehensible
for the ones who love you
and a perfect target for the ones who hate you.
And you could be a reference
for all those stuck in the same dilemma.
Life go vanishing second by second
and there is no time for pretty pictures
there is no time for speeches
with beautiful words
there is no time to waste with details
there is no more doubts that can be dispelled
there is no one who can do it for you.
Today I can choose between the belief that I am living
or the effort to really try to live.
And in what conditions I want to live?
The conditions that the human being deserves
The conditions in which the word "expensive"
does not have a translation in any known language
and the word "justice" has nothing to do with laws
and the word equality does not need a justification
and the word human evokes the same music in all ears.
It cannot be that far this moment
If I can write about it today
If I can desire it today
If I can start building it today.
Perhaps tomorrow I'll wake up
and nobody will mention the weather
and the old man will have his legs cured
and a baby will be born causing great happiness
and a teenager will made a poetry to the world
and we will all sat down and celebrate his work.
That day nobody exploited us
Nobody judged us
and we did not judge anyone
Nobody did anything important
Because the only important things
were our own lives
and that day we live them plentifully!
Fernando Aranguiz
June 8, 1998
Abstract: This is a poem being defined by the title. Every human
being can choose to transform the world in which we live or simply
exsist without much meaning. Every desicion implies risk and difficulties
but at the same time we could be consequent with what we have
chosen. If our task is to Humanize the earth, then we better start
today…
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