joseph young arts

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When the child was a child,

It was time for these questions:

Why and I me, and why not you?

Why am I here, and why not there?

When did time begin, and where does space end?

Is life under the sun not just a dream?

Is what I see and hear and smell

not just an illusion of a world before the world?

Given the facts of evil and people,

does evil really exist?

How can it be that I, who I am,

didn't exist before I came to be,

and that, someday, I who I am,

will no longer be who I am?

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Note: This poem appears in Wim Wender's movie Wings of Desire, and at the time of making this piece I knew only that about the poet, nothing of his politics.