One Day a Man Lied to Himself
Towards acceptance
One day a man lied to himself,
feigning to realise he was losing something.
That loss disturbed him,
making him suffer physical pain.
That disturbance and that suffering were part of the pretence.
That day time passed so slowly,
that the man’s thoughts remained still, suspended in air.
He could walk away and return to find them still motionless, where he had left them.
From that day on, the man began to believe he was losing something,
not suddenly all at once, in a single moment,
but by always thinking of that thing, he believed he was losing it every day.
It was like watching the same sick person die every minute,
every hour, every day.
One day a man lied to himself,
pretending to have other lives and to be able to become in the future
all the men he wished to be.
That pretence disturbed him,
making him suffer physical pain.
That disturbance and that suffering were part of the pretence,
then he listened to the sound of a piano
and the sound of voices coming from the street.
The piano,
and the street.
Inedited original version written July 12, 1991.
