Finding an island / by Pasi Heikkurinen

By Tommi Kauppinen

When a person walks a graveled path,

they see nothing but stones.

The crushed, however, budge and shake

under their feet, shoulder to shoulder.

 

When a swan swims in a lake,

it does not feel the lake's bed, however,

the bed knows it is there,

from the tug and pull of some other.

 

“We can only observe”, is the truth cut in two lies.

“No man is an island”, a well-rehearsed line.

There is an interaction, and the neighbor

is not always the one by eye or ear or mouth.

 

It speaks no words, but we can still listen.

We do not observe, the object perceives us.

How does it feel? How can we understand it?

No object is an island, not even an island.