Estrela Cadente
Meu filho me perguntou:
"Mãe, o que você queria ser quando crescesse?"
Eu disse: "Feliz."
Eu queria ter uma família.
Eu queria ser mãe.
Isso era legítimo –
meu pedido à estrela cadente que a adolescente,
sentada no meio-fio, via.
De olhos fechados, pedia:
"Eu queria ser feliz."
Nem minha amiga, sentada ao meu lado,
entenderia um pedido assim.
Então, guardei comigo.
Naquela hora, eu estava orando
Sem saber.
Aline Tolentino
Shooting Star
My son asked me:
“Mom, what did you want to be when you grew up?”
I said: “Happy.”
I wanted to have a family.
I wanted to be a mother.
That was legitimate —
my wish upon the shooting star
that the teenage girl, sitting on the curb, saw.
With her eyes closed, she whispered:
“I wanted to be happy.”
Not even my friend, sitting beside me,
would understand such a wish.
So, I kept it to myself.
In that moment,
I was praying —
without knowing it.
Aline Tolentino
