Silhouettes of self | a poem

picture by Raees Bonnasse and Owentando Zantsi

Please don't ask me who or what I am.

Because the line where my ego

meets my soul is far too blurred

for me to pretend to know

what "self" means.

I am just a being—

A being born for the sole purpose

of experiencing the art

that is life and death.

That is what I am.

And I can not, and will not, pretend

to understand the intrinsic reasonings

for why we exist the way that we do.

And I surely won't do it for you.

Because your perceptions

and ideas of me are yours

and yours alone.

They give me a who.

As for what I am...

I may be a singular soul

trapped in this vessel

I call a body,

Or the accumulation of

the lived experiences of

those before me.

Maybe I'm a marvel,

a glitch in the universe that

somehow was fortunate

to be born at all.

Or... I could be nothing at all—

just an insignificant creature

roaming the earth unknowingly

watched by beings much more superior.

I will never know the answer

to this question and I believe

trying to find one will distract

me from living a life worth living.

So again and again, I will say:

I am nothing but a simple being.

One that does not need to be understood

to be loved.