what school do you follow?

what school do you follow?" the preacher asked  me
in precarious balanced on the tightrope of  the eternal doubt 
poised between a tear and a rose, a smile and a torment
I did not know what to say back then

I did know, having experienced it myself, that I used my hands to count 
and I kept in mind 1, 2 and 3
and add them up,

then I reversed the addenda
and I pulled the sum, again 
not at random,
and the result was always the same

like so I had been taught since the first time I raised my head from the mud
only that I knew for sure
but I did not dare to sing it in the wind
and now I lament

freedom always has a price
sometiimes the one of regret

Marco Bo