VI
I’m not only who you see, who you know
I’m not only who you have to learn;
I owe each part of my skin to someone
if I touch you with my fingertip
a million people touch you
if one of my words speaks to you
a million people speak to you —
will you recognize all the bodies that make up mine?
Will you find my footsteps in a million footprints?
Will you recognize my movement among the flow of people?
I am what I’ve been and what I won’t be
my dead cells, my dead acts, thoughts
return each night to quench their thirst in my blood.
I am who I haven’t been yet;
the scaffold of future is set inside me.
I am who I’m supposed to become;
my friends around me demand, the enemies forbid.
Don’t seek me elsewhere
only look for me here
only in me.
Manolis Aligizakis 