BY ITSUSHI KAWASE
Walk as you envision the universe.
Walk with the wind, in the rain, and along the river.
Walk in total darkness.
Walk across the surface of the ocean where the white light of the sun glistens.
Walk through a burning canopy.
Forget about the sense of possession and just walk
Walk till the frame that defines you bend and dissolve.
Walk where only blue bones remain unburned after all has disappeared.
Walk against what is deemed ordinary or conventional.
Walk even if you think you’ve traveled as far away as possible but had in fact been in continuous orbit like an artificial satellite.
Walk even if you are sucked into a state of oblivion where you can’t even remember whether your purpose was to walk at all.
Walk on the soles of the wind.
Walk at the base of the clouds.
Walk till you become confused as to where we came from and who we are and where we are going.
Walk as if you were drawing a map on freshly fallen snow.
Walk till you get lost amongst thunderclouds
Walk in sync with forgotten ancient wisdom and spirit.
Walk as you trace the layers of the accumulation of prayers dedicated to the earth.
Walk just like a dandelion fluff.
Walk when you feel sorry for the night sky as all was enshrouded in total darkness when
you gathered up the stars and put them in your bag.
Walk and don’t get involved, swallowed or eaten up by globalization and capitalistic world outlook.
Walk the path that is not consumed within consumer society.
Walk to a line of sight that is lower than ants.
Walk with a fanfare celebrating the joys of one’s daily bread.
Walk till you can hear even the moans of mosquitoes as they fall to the ground and die.
Walk into the film that ain’t got no protagonists.
Walk with a careful attention to internalized systems and history.
Walk against the global market economy
Walk till it enables you to get your breath back as a living being.
Walk as you presume that your innovation is novel and you figured out its not really so, still continue with your innovation.
Walk where you taste the profound depths of loneliness only to make a hole in the bottom of it.
Walk while realizing that this planet is in fact a planet.
Walk while paying respect to the things that this planet has accumulated over billions of years and Walk against the arrogant species that tries to instantly make it seem as if it all never happened.
Walk to connect continent to continent.
Walk where humans stand on the side of being predated rather than an absolute predator in nature.
Walk where there is nothing in the world that can in fact be numerically converted.
Walk while singing Bob Dylan’s “Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore”.
Walk as you persistently engage in deconstructing your thoughts.
Walk when volcanic ashes fall upon the earth like hail and sleet.
Walk till the sea and the sky penetrate with each other and there is no division between.
Walk while accepting being chased by crows as a blessing of the land.
Walk where the end of the earth is the beginning of the universe.
Walk like a rite of passage for the gods.
Walk as the earth imagines you striding across it.
Walk as you still choose to walk regardless of all these things.
The Ethiopian Herald 10 July 2022
