À l’heure du tout à l’image et du buzz sans suite, «l’express» souhaite faire découvrir la plume de poètes, de chanteurs, d’écrivains et de tous ceux qui jettent leur âme sur le papier, et qui mettent en mots des réflexions profondes.

Paper notes to a fellow human, February 26

Creating connection

Daily human sat at the edge of reflection,

thinking of all the times she

sought, succeeded,

failed,

succeeded again

to create connection.

With others.

With moments.

With herself.

Connection, she realised,

was never mastered;

it was rehearsed

over and over

through the many versions of who we become.

Neither permanence or performance,

connection meant living in the present

as who we already are.

The circle of life

never asked us to arrive whole,

but to return willing.

It is always a matter of respect

to connect with ourselves.

To acknowledge where we are standing,

and who we are standing as;

this year, this month, this week,

today.

Each stage asks something different of us.

Each version copes differently.

And so do the people we meet along the way.

How satisfying to know that

connection does not require perfection,

only presence.

Only the courage

to try again.

Daily human,

dwelling, breathing, seeing, and living,

noticed the shopkeeper cycle past on his bicycle

as the needle struck two in the afternoon, singing under his

breath;

“In the second month of twenty twenty-six

True life gave to me

Love for myself

A bucket-full of strength.”

And courage to create connection,

Across all versions of myself.”

This third week of February,

let us remind ourselves

that connection lives within.

It stretches.

It breaks.

It mends.

And in learning how to cope

with the many versions of ourselves

and others,

we remain part of the circle;

always learning

how to belong, and begin.

Bio

Rebecca D’Souza

In collaboration with the Caudan Arts Centre, she has led creative writing workshops since 2024. She is the author of “89 Questions to the Moon”.