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The Big Picture

by David Adès

What if everyone’s gaze focussed on the big picture?

Imagine the way parting, vision clearing.
Imagine a lens zooming out from the personal,

from the local, the national, the international,

the global, zooming out from artificial borders,
human constructs, from politics, language,

religion, belief, zooming out and out

like photographs looking back from Voyager,
the earth dwindling in the rear view mirror,

becoming a speck in the dark folds of space,

solitary, inconsequential, all our concerns
petty and immaterial, what we fight over,

go to war over, kill over.

Imagine harnessing seven and a half billion minds
to common purposes. Imagine the collective

achievements of combined mental power,

industry, creativity, imagination.
Imagine this future as yours for the taking.

Go further. Go beyond the solar system,

go through the mind’s heliosphere.
Imagine beyond the big picture.

Go so far that there’s no coming back.


Copyright © 2017 by David Adès

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