Mokokoma Mokhonoana

If someone were ignorant enough

Of the way that I think,

Or courageous enough,

To ask me to speak at a funeral,

I don’t think everyone would stay

Until the end

Of my speech.

Or that they would allow me to.

Because I

Would sigh,

Look everyone in the eye,

And then say…

What has happened

(“To” “the deceased”)

Is not a miracle,

And was inevitable:

To live

Is to owe life

To die—

To leave

Life.

It takes some people

A long time to pay.

And it takes some

A short time.

Some people are paying now,

As I speak.

And the rest of us will pay later.

Over a million of us,

(Thousands of whom are not

And will not be sick,

Hundreds of whom are strong),

Within a week.

Some people leave life after

They have lived for a hundred

Years.

And some leave life before

They have lived for a hundred

Seconds.

Or even four—

Or less.

What’s more,

Almost all of us

(All of whom

Did not choose

Whether to exist)

Do not choose

When to exit

Life—

Although we can,

If we choose

To exit now.

In other words,

And in closing,

The bigger the family,

The longer the list

Of corpses

It owes life.

* * *

(This poem is available as a print, sticker, on a canvas, tote bag, etc.)

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Great writers use common words to create simple sentences.

There are good reasons they do that. For example, they put being clear over sounding clever. And they want the meaning of the sentence, not the meanings of the words, to take center stage.

What great writers remind readers who deserve their writings is that words are a means to an end.

Readers do not read to read.

They read to get something that happens to be delivered through the written word.

That means that the value of the writer is mainly determined by what they deliver through words. Not by the number of words they have introduced the reader to. You can, as a writer, change the reader’s worldview—and as a result the rest of their life—without changing the number of words they know. Once you realize that, you stop trying to take the reader’s breath away with your vocabulary’s breadth.

Don’t get me wrong!

I also enjoy being forced to use a dictionary every now and then. But only every now and then. And provided the uncommon word adds, to the sentence, something valuable that every common synonym of the uncommon word lacks.

* * *

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APHORISM: Some animals are more humane than some humans.

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