All of this is hypothetical

As if there could be
a world
where a man couldn't rely
in the sense of sight to
know things.

He does this:
he wakes up
and immediately tucks his head
under the blanket
to be sure everything is on its place -

his toes still count ten,
he is still a man,
there's no evidence of a
third nipple.

He eats the news for breakfast
trying to remember days when
the food was tastier.
He walks to work
reading people on the streets,
graffiti on walls,
watching  for cracks on sidewalks
he could fall through, better be safe.

He is now part of the things
his eyes have captured,
they are part of him as well -
children's smiles, war tanks,
cirrus clouds.

But me he doubts.

Been thinking about maybe
improving my knowledge
of political science.
Maybe learning a few jokes.
Maybe challenging
the altitudes of existing.

The year I didn't cry

I wanted it to be this one.
I never made it a resolution,
though.

One evening, early January,
I can't tell the stages of loss,
but I feel like disappearing.

You are the one who
talked me into vulnerability.
I turned to it as others do to religion.

I guess it was November
when I was strong last.
You have changed me already.

The first woman to swim across the Atlantic

Make it September 15,
this year or
maybe the next.

This woman I am
will swim across the Atlantic
cold, violent waters,
my heart
pumping anticipation like blood
throughout my body.

Meet me at the beach,
let's say Walmer, in Kent.
Let's say at 9.15 a.m.,
when silence still covers the peebles.

Dress me with arms and smiles,
I will remember this.
When I tell my accomplishment to the papers,
to my grandchildren,
I will tell them all
how I did it
for you.

Encounters

Itanhaem/SP, Brazil

My first spiritual encounter with the sea was 

in Kent one grey morning, we walked 

side by side down the shore in silence, 

you allowed me space to process its hugeness,
my smallness. 

My first physical encounter

with the sea was in Itanhaem

this week, one grey morning, 

you watched me from a spot 

in the middle of the vast blue

I watched you, 

a wave,

come into being and die,

come into being and die noisily, 

repeatedly.

Repeatedly
I came into being
and died
calmly
with you.

A shard shared

(Tiete bus station, São Paulo/SP)

There is a word
for every face in the crowd

a reason, a story
he teaches me to imagine

so I can move among them
and be not afraid of them,

so they can't hurt me but
can still change me.

(In response to this poem)