In the Great City

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Ever since he arrives in the city, he begins to take solitary walks. Sozinho, sozinho, in the great metropolis. Sometimes he stops near a convenience store or a supermarket and reads the words in English. He is very far from his country, distante, distant. In Brazil, he could have a wife or a couple of kids, if that were what he really wanted. He has saudade, do outro lado do oceano, of what he will never become. The past dissolves in presence. Part of his destiny is to be. “I have a house inside myself,” he says in confidence. He thinks about his father and his chest tightens, a desire to be unconditionally loved. Intimately, that’s his greatest fear.

Poem published in Mouse Tale Press.