“I Am Asking”

— body language by Weddie Thiên  —

 

​"You Are Asking," said your hunger, said the reaching of your hand,

Said the baby in the morning who has never made a plan.

But the world keeps a ledger and the world keeps a score,

And it teaches you to want quietly and never at the door.

​

Now the toddler doesn't hedge. Have you watched him? Have you heard?

He will ask you for the moon and not soften up his words.

He asks the man beside him for the hat upon his head,

He asks for one more story after two you have just read.

He asks the sky for snowfall and he asks the dog to sing,

He asks the world for everything, he asks it like a king.

He does not count the cost of it, he does not gauge the odds,

He asks it of the neighbors and he asks it of the gods.

​

He is not being greedy and he is not being rude,

He is not making claims on another body's food.

He has not met the notion, not a whisper, not a trace,

That a want must be permitted before it shows its face.

​

Then it came from Mother's kitchen, then it came from Father's chair:

"Don't be greedy. Don't be needy." And the good boy heard it there.

Not a shout and not a punishment, just those words along the way,

They landed as a condition, a condition that came to stay,

Once the asking was so easy, it was breathing, it was free,

Now a debt he has to carry, now a bill he cannot see.

​

So he hints and then he hedges and he softens and he waits,

And he hopes they'll come and offer what he never designates.

Now it's nothing they are doing, for their voices are his own,

He says “no” to his own asking, and he says it all alone.

​

"I Am Asking," and my asking makes requests and not demands,

It's a door I hold wide open, with my free and open hands.

You can tell me “no” on Monday, you can tell me “no” all year,

For asking is my birthright, and the "noes" I do not fear.

​

"I Am Asking, I Am Asking," it is not a thing I earn,

Not a favor, not a bargain, not a wage to take my turn.

Before the House of Good and Bad ever weighed what it does weigh,

Before anybody rationed what a wanting soul could say,

"I Am Asking," and the wanting is always fully mine,

My well's been here a-brimming since the beginning of all time.

​

And the “no” is not a verdict and the “no” is not a wall,

It's a fact about a Tuesday, and it isn't me at all.

I will ask you for the moon and I will ask you for the sun,

And when you say you haven't got them, I will go and ask someone.
 

"We Are Asking," though the most have yet to try,

And they hunger at a table where the bread is piled high.

They will never hear a “yes” if they never make a sound.

I will ask it loud beside them till the asking comes around.

​

You heard it from another, then you found it was your own,

Then you gave it to the others who forgot what they had known.

Three roads into knowing, and they all arrive at grace:

From the hearing, to the owning, to the lighting of a face.

​

"I Am Asking, I Am Asking," it is not a thing I earn,

Not a favor, not a bargain, not a wage to take my turn.

Before the House of Good and Bad ever weighed what it does weigh,

Before anybody rationed what a wanting soul could say,

"I Am Asking," and the wanting is always fully mine,

My well's been here a-brimming since the beginning of all time.