dre poetic: words by adrien salazar

there is something about being far away from the land i was born on

i am followed by the ghost of a life that might have been if circumstances were different and only by luck or by fortune that i live this instead

instead of wrestling every day in the streets of the city in the middle of the country rice grass confused about its city-hood as stray dogs and chickens walk the streets and the market sells fish caught only a few miles away sugar cane grown next door and everyone’s own backyard lansones

instead of heat breathing down my neck all my life wrapping me until i am the humid air and the sweat being born on my skin is the same flavor as the monsoon rains

instead of twenty peso tricycles to get to school or walking to my friends down the street where the jungle is still fighting the fresh asphalt

instead of a life of every day manilasong radiowaves and flyswatters and a night sky so dark so clear the stars seem to fall on top of me when i look up

instead of dreaming about some place called america that may or may not be real

instead
this place
keeps on me

some other history a kind of dream other life
a place on the other side of the world that may or may not be real

except for the pictures in old books and the way my belly button itches from ghost memories of humid salt air and tongue