It worked. I’m not afraid anymore.
Who are you? What’s your name?
How did you know? What do you say?
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand.
What’s in your hands? What did you write?
I don’t understand. Is it all there?
What is all?
Do you know what you wrote? No, stop asking questions,
I don’t understand. I am asking you, if you please.
Why are you smiling? What’s in the books?
No, I don’t feel better, Why should I thank you?
What’s in the books? How did you know?
You wrote down my story? But I’m still alive!
How do you know? Stop smiling!
Did you write down every story?
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand what you’re saying!
Stop playing with me! Why are you smiling?
Just give me that book, won’t you?

Let me see.

So you wrote down my story
a long time ago
You made up your own mind
So analytical, so categorical
perpendicular to my version
So tell me:

Was it ever wise to run?
Was it ever wise to wait?
Was it ever wise to climb upon the tree
and throw stones at your neighbour?

Was it ever wise to miss a chance?
Was it ever wise to grief?
Was it ever wise to stroll around the woods
and scavenge through the mud to look for food

Was it ever wise to suspect?
Was it ever wise to fall apart?
Was it ever wise to make out in the field that shone so red under the troubled sky?

Was it ever wise to trap the unknown?
Was it ever wise to hold onto it?
Was it ever wise to make it yours
And label it with a question mark?

I say, Jane, did you read them all?
All these books you leave behind when you move around
I see you scribbling even now that I’m talking to you
I hear you scribbling when I sleep, when I’m eating, when I cry
I see you scribbling all the time
When I’m with my friends, when I struggle to find water
I hear that scratching sound of metal that violates the white paper
You scribbled even now when everyone else left

So, tell me how to behave
Like the boy in your cage
Am I part of your game?
All this noise is a shame
Where’s the start of the maze?
Are the rules to be played by?
Did you read them all?
Did you read them all?

Where’s the end of the maze?
Where’s the start of the game?
Tell me how to behave
Is the purpose ok?
Am I part of your game?
Tell me how to behave
Is the purpose ok?
Have my questions a place?

Like my mothers who left
Like my fathers too ashamed
Like my sisters who fight
Like my brothers who rot in their jail
Like my children who cry
Like my friends who live by
all the mess and goodbyes
Can you please clarify?

So tell me page after page:
All the thoughts to be made
All the worlds to be chained
All the loves to be craved for

And then page after page
All the lies and mistakes
All the lands up in flames
All the lost and their names

All the gods to be prayed

And then written
on the last page:

“Oh, the lights you see fading
All the joys will be brave”

Oh, the lights you see fading
All the joys will be brave

I say, Jane
Did you read them all?
Tell me how to behave
Like the boy in your cage
Am I part of your game?
All this noise is a shame
Where’s the start of the maze?
Are the rules to be played by?
Oh, the lights you see fading
Did you read them all, Jane?
Have my questions a place?
Is the purpose ok?

Did you read them all?