The Way We Are
Jonathan Chibuike Ukah

Who will believe our story,
When we tell them that we travelled to the sky
And returned without wearing stars on our bodies?
We discovered oceans in the clouds,
Rivers and seas within the galaxies;
Yet we stayed dry, like a lizard emerging from a pool;
We waded into the sun, but it did not burn us,
Neither did we escape with our bodies tainted by ashes.
Can we live in the forest for a year
Without being transformed into a deer?
Or climb the icebergs without becoming sea mammals?
We know the things we met and saw,
Capable of transforming a frog into an elephant,
A rodent into a horse; a lizard would become a bird;
Where deserts would migrate into a flood
And be transformed into an expansive body of water.
But here we are, untouched and unchanged by what we saw,
Unlamented by the things we left behind.
We saw how the coconuts carried water to the top,
No longer bothered with drought or desiccation;
We discovered how the moon lives
In the bellies of the stars,
And the sun enjoys the society of the clouds;
Everything that breathes cannot survive alone
Except fulfilled through the destiny of others.
We returned the same as when we did not see
How other universes practice the art of living
And that life stays on nothing but an association
Through which we love and be loved in return.
So unbroken and unbreakable we roam around life,
Unshaven by the blade of miracles,
Untainted and untamed by this scourge.