Knowing, And Not Knowing

I was there at White Sands

wearing sunglasses to watch

the detonation at the end of the world,

I was free-falling with Little Boy

through the skies above Hiroshima,

I was checking through comic-books on the

newsstand outside the Dallas Book Depository

when I heard the shots that took away our future,

I watch the 9:11 towers fall over and over,

on a million TV-screen repeat,

I hung around the Dakota Building

as John Lennon signed his final autograph,

something outside me takes the words away,

evil passes me blind on the sidewalk,

if this is a phase I’m going through,

when does it end and move

smoothly into the next phase?

is there a chart you can consult,

a graph that indicates you’re here,

moving up this sharp incline

towards that point there,

after which you move through

into the next phase where all this

mixed-up confusion resolves,

if this is a learning process,

when does the knowing set in?

because the more I’m seeing

the less I understand…

Andrew Darlington
Illustration Nick Victor