She told me they were lying on a cardboard
when her mother said:
" look at the stars. aren't they beautiful?"
(yeah... she sighed...yeah...)
the stars were beautiful indeed
and they were shining just for them
although the night was hungry and dirty.
she counted and counted till
that strange sound in her belly quietened.:
"there is one there and another one here.
mom, can you see that blue star? it's mine.
it's all mine."
"they're yours, meu bem."
mom whispered sadly.
the stars were so small and fragile
like her invisible life.
she wanted to be one of them.
maybe people would pay attention to her,
to mom, to dad, to Mariazinha.
people are so strange.
she was afraid of them.
she has always feared them.
one night
she dreamed God was holding a star
and it was her.
she wished she could have written about it.
but she learned to read only when she was 23
the first thing she did when
she had a roof over her head was
to get a towel and
go to the beach on a starry night
just to contemplate them:
her most faithful friends.
