Boy
What obstacle can there be between a boy and infinity?
Behind the old brick house, among countless fig and persimmon trees,
next to the concrete cistern and under a beautiful bright summer sky,
the boy was playing climbing trees
and chasing locusts hiding in the grass.
A boy knows that with just a prosaic branch of a tree
he can wield the most invincible of swords,
and that if he gathers a single stone from the ground,
he will have in his hands the power to move the world
and shake it as he pleases.
The boy created a cyclone from a simple blow,
caused an earthquake by jumping from a tree,
landing with his feet firmly on the earth.
In fact, a boy will create mountains and seas,
skies and planets whenever he wants to.
However, tired of playing,
the boy stopped beside the cistern,
turned on the faucet and let the water run down the floor.
On hot afternoons like this one,
there is a scent of transformation in the air.
It is at this moment that the discoveries that lead to growth take place: seeing the water soaking the earth,
turning into clay, drying and turning to dust,
the boy understood the transience of the elements.
We don't like these gross mechanisms of time.
Inside us, we try to attribute to all things,
even if in an illusory way,
a cover of perpetuity,
something that softens the violence of the years and its consequences.
It seems to be a fair form of self-defense,
especially when we realize
that all the blessing brought by understanding,
ends up being taken away
by the realization of our finitude.
You don't expect such thoughts to occur to a boy,
yet he understands the acid logic
that excludes the balm of fantasy from life
and injects a dose of the poison of reality in its place.
Soon he will look with indifference at the old toys,
he will replace each laugh with a disappointment,
each disappointment will form a tear,
and finally he will yell at his own children,
demanding that they stop playing and grow up at once.
Growing up is the only obstacle
that can stand between a boy and infinity.
Copyright © Marco Chies | Year Posted 2022
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