Poet Blanco at U.S. Embassy: ‘Our Footprints Like a Mirage of Cells Vanished’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

"For the people of both our country who believed that not even the sea could keep us from one another. Matters of the sea, the sea doesn't matter, what matters is this. We all belong to the sea between us. All of us. Once and still the same child who marvels over star fish. Listens to hollow shells. Sculpts dreams. We've all been lovers, holding hands. Strolling down either of our shores. Our foot prints like a mirage of cells vanished in waves that don't know they're birth or care on which country they break. They break. They bless us and return to the sea. Home to all our silent wishes. No one is the other to the other to the sea whether on hemmed island or vast continent, remember our grandfathers.

Their hands dug deep into red or brown Earth. Planting maple or mango trees that out live them. Our grandmothers counting years while dusting photos for their wedding days. Our mothers teaching us how to reach in Spanish or English. How to tie our shoes, how to gather falls colors or bite into a guava. Our fathers warmed by the weight of clouds clocking in at factories or cutting sugar cane to earn a new life for us.

My cousins and I now scouting the same stars above skyscrapers or palms waiting for time to stop and begin again when rain falls. Washes its way through river or street back to the sea. No matter what anthem we sing we've all walked barefoot and bare soul among the soar and dive of sea gulls cries. We've offered our sorrows and hopes up to the sea. Our lips anointed by the same spray of salt latent wind. We've all cupped seashells up to our ears.

Listen again to the echo. Today the sea still telling us the end to all our doubts and fears is to gaze into the lucid blues of our shared Verizon. To breathe together, to heal together. Thank you."