OBAMA = HOPE

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TO ALL MY FRIENDS

Read and enjoy history in the making,
enjoy this day, the beauty of the words
the millions of people marchinhg along a new avenue ,
larger and longer than Pennsylvania,
opened by Obama's strong commitment ,
for the hope in a new world, in the togetherness of love and joy,
because a new era has just begun,
and all of us have been called by this brilliant, warm-hearted man
to do our duty to achieve the old still unfulfilled dream of mankind
of living in peace all over the world
and inside each of us.

Tears ran down my cheeks
as I was watching him speak and a sweet warmth wrapped my heart .
All of a sudden,I felt I was an enormous being
touching the skies with my wide open arms,
my legs standing apart
strongly placed on today's hard soil of fear and discomfort.
Then, from the bottom of my soul,
where permanently a river runs
through a green valley,
from the roots of flowery beds,
first only a murmur,
then gradually growing to a deafening cry
of despair and hope,
I cried and my cry echoed through all the universe:
YES WE CAN.
WE CAN CHANGE OURSELVES AND CHANGE THE WORLD
The time is now.
Tomorrow will be too late.

Outside my window, as I write these words,
on a cold Winter morning,
in a quiet little town,
amid the planes of Portugal's Alentejo,
I heard what sounded like the soft wings of the sun
tapping on the window pane.
But it was just Elizabeth Alexander's hand
stretching through the glass.
pulling and leading me
to the kingdom of light.
I hope I'll soon hear
your footsteps
going the same way.

_____

António Simões, Estremoz 21,2009

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