1. The Cities Inside Us
By: Alberto Ríos
Ruby Martinez 2B

2. We live in secret cities

3. And we travel unmapped roads.

4. They are our words. 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.

5. You and I, we are the citizens of the city
Inside us, and inside us
There go all the cars we have driven

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

7. But which used to be as well.
This is where they went. They did not disappear

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

9. It’s loud inside us, in here
And when speak in the outside world…

10. Does not come out, that an arm…
We have to hope that some of that sound
Does not come out, that an arm…
Does not reach out
In place of the tongue.

11. 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.