“If I am I because you are you, and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you. But if I am because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you”

Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

“Once upon a time I dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly I woke, and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man”

Chuang-Tse – 3rd Century BC

Bang Bang Bang

Bang. bang. bang.
I lay, confined in darkness
dormant for months
yearning for the outside
safe still in my prison
from the light

I’m scared of the light
kept safe by the bang
of the door of my prison
which keeps in the darkness
outside
I’ve been here for months.

There’s still months
to go before the light
comes from outside
with a crash and a bang
and the darkness
leaves my prison

and I’m expelled from my prison
after all these months
hiding in the darkness
afraid of what the light
means and the bang bang bang
is louder on the outside

I’m frightened what’s outside
the walls of this prison
batons on the bars, bang
I’ve been awake for months
In my head there’s a light
and it darkens the darkness

It’s over, the darkness
is leaving, outside
I can see the light
the door of my prison
is open after months
with a deafening bang

Light floods the cell, but darkness
bang bang bangs in your head when you get outside
Prison last longer than the months you’re there