Eugenio swims on the cobbles of a parched city.
The crystal glass of liquor is the sparkling Nile,
The smoke of a cigarette is the Great Green Sea.
He is the Pharaoh of all creation,
An indigent on a stony doorstep of a ragged town
Watching passersby crawl through the desert:
Thirst from the baking sandstone walls, thirst from the sun,
Thirst from lives being lived too fast—
Beggars for no coin; just a perfect moment to quench their thirst
When a lifetime will do.
In a desert city, he alone has found the water.
He alone has drunk from the fountain of eternal life,
Has discovered the hidden monument
Buried at the bottom of the glass,
And the glowing sunset in the summer raincloud at the tip of his cigarette.
He drinks it in; bathes himself in its sacred waters and is washed clean,
Never suffering for thirst on the stony doorstep
Of a ragged, parched town.
Unseen.
He is a mirage.
The rippling image of a false man
Taken to lead towards a dead horizon.
And so they pass.
The thirsty crawl on,
Entering another charming storefront,
Searching for an oasis.