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Once upon a Time: Surfside, Miami
Once and once again I am as I remember
myself. Thirty years later, I can still savor
the sway of these palms fanning this same
wind into syllables whispering good morning
in my eyes, saving these todays when I can
no longer hear how to live out this passion
for breaking myself into poems like this, like
these waves that once upon a time are again
my loyal loves still kissing my feet as I stroll
this shore and glance back at my footprints
again washed away. The salty salve of these
breezes I breathe, living once again with all
my joyous regrets for all I’ve done right or
wrong, for all I am now, that is enough, yet
not enough, for who I wanted to be once,
still searching this sea, still facing this same
silent horizon, I ask again: Who am I? What
should I do? The answer, as always: Everything.
Richard Blanco, who was the fifth inaugural poet of the United States, was born on this day in 1968.
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