identity

i’ve learnt

the ways of the rude

to hold reality in a new logic,

debate with hard and loud facts.

but i too am humble, respecting,

man and life.

i am not a new man,

not very different

from you;

the people and cities

of coastal ports

taught me not to brood

over a foreign world,

suffer difficulties

or fear possibilities.

i am you,

freed from the village,

its soils and ways,

independent, because

i have found myself.