You say
You’re putting all of your wisdom
Into a nutshell
You try to be precise
You try to squeeze the basics
Into something so tiny
That there is only bones left
The whole story reduced to
Something bizarrely empty —

In a nutshell
Is something for the fast
For people in a hurry
No time for anything —

In a nutshell
Reading is for the lost
Thinking is for the past
Listening on the go
In synopses —

Novels don’t fit in nutshells
Especially
When you put the facts in one half
Then put the other upon it
Glue it close
So nothing is able to get out of it
And nothing more is getting in there —

My mind is a seashell though
It’s tiny at first
But it grows
And one day
It opens
Takes all the wisdom it gets
Then closes
Works on the pearl inside
Opens again
Taking in more wisdom
And so the pearl grows
As does the wisdom —

It could be great
And something to learn from for humanity
But unfortunately
The seashell and its pearl
Are underwater
Not the habitat of the human body
They just briefly go there
To hunt for the pearls —

And they leave the seashells
Empty.

        © Dominik Alexander / 2023