A Small Motor

Alberto Ríos

The easiest sadness is a boy

Watching another boy

Walk with a barefooted girl, clean

Perfect feet, that kind of nose,

Eyes like those he’s dreamed

In the dream that comes back.

A boy watching another boy lucky

Gets an ache

That is a small motor.

In me there is an animal,

And in that animal

There is a hunger.

I remember the boy

Watching a boy.

It was me.

Watching, I was a little bit

The boy walking.

I was both of us.

That’s how it felt.

What I could not have,

That’s what I was

Inside, an ache

Coming as I stood

Too many places.