I bid farewell to childhood with my soul and my face crumpling
like Jacques Brel singing his music/ I wrote letters and poems without destination
where the sun smiled from my old deflated plastic ball

the child blew warm air over the train’s window to draw it with a finger
and then the ball disappeared
and the child breathed over and over again
like a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until he could see the sea with its big sun above
and he showed it to everyone as if it were a wonder

he stood upright with his hands shading his eyes
on the beach where the sand slipped away quicker and quicker
how beautiful are footprints in the soft sand/ how thin they are
said the child/ I shall build a castle
for a small fairy I shall place my yellow panther to guard the gate
here is a road towards the castle/ and here is a bridge
from an empty matchbox/ I shall build more bridges
with white seashells around and I shall place horses on bridges
seahorses with their manes waving in the wind

my head whizzed from pain/ the howl of the sea was stronger/
my temple bone was a seashell and that trail of footprints climbed to the skies