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No End to Possibilities
 
    if I do this
then what will happen?
obviously

for sure
if I do this correctly
then nothing will happen (to me)

if I disappear
then nothing has happened
 
to me to you to anybody
 
if I answer just the right way
                        will I be alright?
 
perhaps
if I chose the right road
then I won’t be disappeared
 
If I make a wrong move
                        then that might be my end
 
or your end, or all of ours
 
if I stay silent
                        you will not need to feel uncomfortable
 
possibly
if I do not come here
then you will not have a problem
 
if I am not hungry
then nobody can accuse me
 
hear me know me see me feed me love me
 
if I ask
no questions, no need to be afraid
 
if I stay
                        still good things could happen
 
if I leave
                        still bad things could happen
 
if I hide
                        then I will be safe and dead
 
obviously, no burden to anyone
free, I will have migrated to another planet
free, I will have emigrated to another realm
 
don’t look for me
you might
disappear too
remember
my smile
don’t forget
            your duty
to do right
to do good

                                to be alive
 
                                        your beautiful
 
 
For the hungry, homeless, for the refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants
For the needy, the lepers, the sick, the old, for myself
For the forgotten and tortured ones
For us
 

Karina Epperlein, Berkeley, August 15, 2025 

Comments

Alex K said…
You have taken the very particular and immediate and made it into the universal and timeless. "...remember / my smile..." I am very moved when I see what we are living through so tenderly.
August 17, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Sam S said…
I LOVE this poem. But not because of what it seems to be about. I want to enlarge it. To “disappear” – does that not mean to die? Is this poem not about life and death? Reread it and substitute “die” for “disappear.”

“if I disappear
then nothing has happened
to me to you to anybody”

Only those we have touched will take notice when we die. I think you are saying, “Make a difference while you are here. Make it so people notice when you are gone!”

At least, that’s the way I read it!

Thank you, Karina for another wonderful poem!
August 17, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Karina said…
Thank you, Sam, for being so perceptive and imaginative – wonderful. I love when people discover the deeper layers, and share. Poems can speak universally, they benefit from not spelling it all out. It is up to the reader or audience to decipher. This multi-layered quality exists also in my films, in life, and dreams.... a situation or dream might seem to be about this or that, but perhaps deeper secrets and truths are waiting to be discovered.... be your beautiful :) we all need encouragement...
August 17, 2025 at 9:30 PM
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