When I was three,
I used to think that
people could live forever.
I used to think that
they could do so if,
and only if,
no hatred, fear, or violence were to overcome them.
I used to think,
to hold on to the fact,
that as long as we
genuinely loved each other,
we'd never die, not really.
To me,
death was a longer version
of sleep
filled with frivolous dreams--
a new adventure
brought on
by life.
I thought that
if we wanted to learn,
if we wanted to love,
If we wanted to help,
to live,
we would keep on growing,
taller and taller,
to the heights
of the skyscrapers
we spent so much time building.
It took a while
for me
to realize
that I was right.