I.

We bargained our innocence

And too soon we learn there is no restitution,

That though there is deliverance in acceptance,

It is not easy

In this city everyone is honking

Desperately looking for it

But nobody wants to run barefoot,

See cityscape’s lights

As breaths of forever

Everyone is hurrying,

Crossing intersections,

Without stopping 

And asking the man 

Who accidentally step on their foot

If he had gone tired caring 

For his wife for 15 years and why?

Everyone is running

Into each other’s lives,

Treating those that didn't work as accidents,

Giving no thought 

To incurred bruises or wounds 

What if there are broken bones left

That can't be reconstructed?

II.

You might be in a crowded train 

Or about to sleep 

And suddenly recognizes 

The whiteness of snow 

You can see it through misty windows

Do not worry

Coincidence will make us

I will show you the scratches of my knees

As you show me the bruises of your palms

I will tell you how loss made me

As you tell me 

What the council of years has taught you,

“Love endures endings”

Because we search for things 

That resemble 

What we loss,

We become stronger 

With every attempt,

We are given the gift of bravery

Because nothing can stop us 

To claim what is ours

III.

I labored to keep

But why am I

Forced to lean,

Strain forward?

I am in awe at the horizon

We still have to go,

I’m small and mute

Let me take comfort 

In looking at myself 

Distorted in water

It can be tiring sometimes,

The choices we have to make,

The negotiations,

Compromises,

Attempts and defeats,

I long for someone to tell me, 

“I am with you as you are with me,

Because you are my brother,

Because we endured the same things,

Because we chose to live longer, 

To see all possible lights,

To try to hold 

What we need to eventually let go,

To struggle

Come closer

I will show you respite"

IV.

I found myself again in this place

With no self pity

This must be our fate:

To always measure,

To only find what we come looking for,

How could we keep on fooling ourselves,

“Soon a light will break-in,"

How could we not save ourselves 

From lives we are bound to live? 

Let us be our own god

Command a flood 

And drown ourselves

With nothing but a suitcase

I arrived here

And now am leaving 

With the same

I am going 

To places of weeping and laughter,

To know more 

The painful norms of the heart 

And feelings of man

V.

He could not remember how it ended, 

He do not want to remember,

He want everything to be this way,

He is ready to go

Only deaf furniture are left:

A broken chair, 

Dismantled table, 

And a bed made wider by nights,

The roads here have become too familiar

He now need 

To suddenly take a new turn

To get lost,

Walk among the crowd, 

Let eventuality lead him

To where it wants him to go

"He is already tired anyway 

Of destroying himself 

To justify his being”

Take him to where he could not be afraid;

To where he could face the world

So he could dance with all the old selves

He had to disown 

Because he thought a ruthless self

Could make him withstand 

All brutalities 

And vulgarities 

We make of this life

VI.

I was already prepared by the long nights,

By your absence in your presence

Take with you my tenderness

I know how to carry my pain

Remember there was that king

Who asked for what could make him happy

When he is sad,

And he was given a ring

With an inscription inside,

Like all triumphs and failures,

All love and loss,

“This too shall pass”