I KNEW…
To Mona Lasater with love to Carlo Buti
A boy, I knew, “There’s a land,
Somewhere far away.
Where people live just hand in hand
And walk their own way.
They’re happy every single day.
Not knowing feud and strife,
With honor, pride, and love, and play –
They manage their life.
One works for all, as hard as can,
And others work for him.
They value knowledge, wisdom, and
Hate lie with a higher vim.”
I asked the learned people then
(They know quite everything),
“Where could I find such a land ?”
But they heard not a thing.
I turned to books, to charts, to maps...
It couldn’t ever be:
I wouldn’t touch by searching steps
The land I yearned to see.
I’d found finally the place.
It was – the core of my whim.
To cross that risky stormy space
I rigged my better dream.
And on the shore those people asked,
“Hey, where are you from?”
I shrugged, “You know, far in the past
Somewhere is my home”.
They said, “Is that the very land
Somewhere far away,
Where people live just hand in hand
And walk their own way?”
I did not say another word.
Back home I sailed my ship:
For our dreams we’ve got this world
To saw them and to reap.
It was a foolish freak, my friend,
Don’t follow it in vain.
Yet let me tip you: there is the land…
Somewhere… far… away…