The Cities Inside Us By: Alberto Ríos

Ruby Martinez2B

We live in secret cities

And we travel unmapped roads.

We speak words between us that we recognize But which

cannot be looked up.

They are our words.

They come from very inside our mouths.

You and I, we are the citizens of the city

Inside us, and inside usThere go all the cars we have driven

And seen, there all the people We know and have known, there

But which used to be as well.

This is where they went. They did not disappear

We each take a piece Through the eye and through the ear.

It’s loud inside us, in here

And when speak in the outside world…

We have to hope that some of that sound Does not come out, that an arm…

Does not reach outIn place of the tongue.

Theme“The Cities Inside Us” refers to a city full of life and memories. This city is were we save everything we have experienced. When Alberto Rios talks about “unmapped roads,” he meant that there was a time in his life were he did not know where to go or where to turn to. We all have secret cities inside us, and we all have memories that can only be alive in our minds and hearts.