Hide and Seek

A Seeker counts to ten.

First Gong;

Deep breath

No countdown for those like us

We can hear a gong banging

We? Who’s we?

Those who hid under a table

making ourselves believe a wood —

can somehow protect us.

I’m not like them though

I surround myself with a black cloth

ten times my size.

It is a perfect illusion to blend in the dark.

Second Gong;

Run fast

I heard others running

Most cry as they do

Why are they crying?

I don’t know.

God knows who,

I should not bother, should I?

But then I ran

more like crawl

this cloth is too heavy to carry

But I can’t run without it

It is the only thing that can save me.

Third Gong;

A Fall

there was a rock, huge

didn’t see it

don’t know if it’s just too dark

don’t know if it’s just the cloth

illusions we keep to protect ourselves

are sometimes the very thing that makes us fall

This cloth. It is this cloth’s fault, of course.

Who’d I blame? I see no one else here but the cloth

Fourth Gong;

Full moon thief

Midnight, it was a full moon

they say it is a thief of the night

wondered why. been staring at it for hours

can’t sleep trying to figure out

what it steals away from us

4:00 am, I still can’t figure out what

I’m afraid someone would steal this cloth

5:30 am, I’m sleepy but I can’t sleep

I’m afraid someone would kill me while I do

6:00 am, I can’t sleep now.

It’s another day for an illusionary run.

Fifth Gong;

A surprise — I was

A man went inside the cloth

he needs to have a place to hide to

he said he would do everything for me to let him stay

Naïve? I did. But I ask for nothing

A state I’m in won’t need anything from someone else

And if there is,

I bet my life he is not someone who can give it to me —

or anyone else.

Sixth Gong;

It is not the moon that steals — it was him all along.

I woke up with 1/10 of the black cloth remaining

I was lucky he left me with some

Saw a child by a tree

she gave me a piece of bread to eat

she told me to throw the black cloth

Why would I?

She laughed.

She said the trees can give me more than the cloth can

So I did.

Seventh Gong;

Unknown intervals

I asked the child what would happen after the tenth gong.

She said this would all stop.

What would?

All this.

All this running, hiding, and protecting ourselves from nothing

and she laughed again.

She said the trees laugh at us too.

We’re too busy with what we are doing that

we forget what we are here for.

What are we here for anyway?

The child laughs.

Eight Gong;

A bath

The child runs to take a bath

there was a river

it was warm

it was nice

How did the child know there was a river in here?

She said the trees taught her where the treasures were hidden

I asked her how she can talk to the trees

She said no.

But, “The branches of the trees point us to somewhere good.”

Weay — I should take note of that,

Ninth Gong;

Prepare for the last.

Made sure I eat

Made sure I slept right

Made sure I was okay before the tenth comes

The child took the day the same way she did the others

How could she?

I waited for the tenth.

A day. A week. A month passed.

It never came. I asked the child why the tenth never came.

She laughed telling because it will stop everything and all of this can’t stop. What?

She held my hand. “But something stopped right?” she asked.

The tenth never came. And I stopped waiting. I started to understand the child now. I understand what the moon steals from us when it is full. I understand why I never needed to protect myself. I started to understand the trees and their branches even if they don’t speak to me. I started to understand why the gongs were there.

And I’m starting to understand why I’m here.

There was no seeker and I didn’t have to hide.