Airports

Why do i like them?
Because I live there.
I have no country.
I have no home.
Airports are my refuge,
my place.
I can hear all
the languages there
and all the accents in English –
most passengers speak
that international tongue,
and they do it so differently –
I can recognize a Hindi «r»
in London,
and a Turkish «c» read like «j»)
in Frankfurt
I can distinguish a Polish «sz»
In Paris
and a Finnish «p»
in Petersburg.

I like airports
because I can be alone
there and at the same time
surrounded by people.
I have a choice:
Either to communicate or not.
And I do talk to people
Often at the airports –
I learn that way
A lot of things
You can`t find in books.
A woman from Sweden
just showed to me
her distant town
called Malmo.

I love the movement,
the change, unexpected happenings
like this announcement:
«The American Airlines
plane is overloaded,
we offer to willing travelers
to take a later plane
with a S250 bonus».
It works.

Something is theatrical
about airports.
It`s like a big,
never-ending performance
with ever-varying actors.
Not as tiring
as watching movies on TV
one after another.
You have enough time
to digest your observations
going from one scene to the next.
It demands creativity:
You can close your eyes,
then open them again –
you won`t miss anything –
this flow of life
doesn`t necessarily have a logic,
it has
neither a beginning
nor an end.

Today I am
at G. LuperOn Airport,
full of musica Latina –
my favorite.
Live musicians play here
all the time –
in the long hallway with Puerto afiches –
mucho intenso.
That type of joyful vitality
suits me
as much as the ambient
music of European airports.
Spacious lounges calm me
and keep me concentrated
in «the now».

I have a better focus
at the airports
than even at the libraries.
So I`ve written
This poem for you
in the Dominican Republic,
waiting for my plane
to New York City,
returning from the eternal summer
to the falling winter.

2004 y.