Homecoming
Say we return in half a thousand years
to find no streets or roads, but
everybody staying in the same place
never suspecting there is anywhere else to go.
Say we return and hear not one piece of music,
one sonata or symphony or opera, but
only one child humming “On the Trail.”
Say we find no paintings or statues or books,
no radios, TVs or computers.
Say we say hello and no one hears us but
one bony man who fixes us with his one good eye
and lifts one finger to his silent lips in “Sshhh.”
First
published in Finland. xPress(ed). ISBN 951-9198-62-8.