Let me Stand Alone



“If the words I use buzz away from my lips meaninglessly, then we’ll let them hang in the air for a while. We’ll let those silly words sit and make fools of themselves until other words come and crowd around them.

I need to flutter and hover and look at the diamond ripples through six swirled insect eyes. Just don’t touch me for a moment. Let me sit and stare at everything through my own eyes for a while. Let me dance in the lily petals and skim the trembling water and buzz like useless words in the air.

Do you understand? Let me lie alone on my back in tall grass and see the sun and the water droplets on braches and the red tree trunks through my own eyes. Let me color them and build them with my own words. Lonely, strong words. Let me stand alone at the edge of the earth and look at it honestly, alone.”

~Rachel Corrie, Let me Stand Alone

Painting by Elisabeth Slettnes

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