boxes

there was a time when
i was born as a human
a wombed, brown skinned one
in a criss-cross of different dna
of human bloodlines in conflict
in a period of turmoil

in that period
in an act of rebellion
against time and death
humans had become
obsessed with meaning
as a way to index
and to control reality

like, dividing the world into pieces
and putting these pieces in boxes

the boxes were then organized
hierarchically
in imposed orders of importance
that reflected their worth and achievement

the main boxed idea
was that all human relations
should happen through the boxes

they believed the right box-belief
could explain, describe, define, prescribe, fix
and tell us exactly who we are

boxes would allow everyone
to touch, to own and to contain
real truth, justice and beauty
once and for all

the boxes worked like
“boxhouses”
“boxborders”
“boxdisciplines”

they justified expropriation
in the name of progress and development
they justified theft and murder
in the name of law and order
they justified rankings of the value of life
in the name of “civilization”

in this period
humans understood wealth
as the decorations of the boxhouse
they started to fail to notice
that the walls that they had built
to protect the accumulated junk
trapped them in the abject poverty
of the emptiness of existence
in boxed separation

humans forgot
how to experience the world
how to dream and to hope
beyond the walls of their houses and borders

it worked like a spell
that scaled up their boxheads
shrank their bodies
and numbed all senses
that refused to comply
or fit into sense-making

eventually the boxhouses
resembled prisons
in a lockdown
of saturated expired meaning

although boxheads and boxhouses
were cluttered with cheap junk
they felt empty

at first people felt bored
then sad…
then cheated and angry…

they started wars
over meaning and choice
over boxhouses (in the name of property)
over boxborders  (in the name of sovereignty)
over the superiority and righteousness
of their boxheads (in the name of pride)

they fought and killed
for their perceived entitlement
for “boxsecurity”,  “boxstability”, “boxnormality”
and the cracks and damage
were fixed with weaponized cement

the story of patching the boxhouse
from the inside
went on for the longest time
and repeated itself time and time again
until something happened

a fungus arrived and spread from each corner
of anything box-related
it compromised the structural stability
of anything box-like

all boxes collapsed

and every animal of the human species
could breathe unboxed air again.