From you, Dad,
I learned to fight!
You bequeathed it to me
to hide myself in my fragile body,
and never fall to my knees.


I learned to laugh from you
when it hurts to the point of fainting.
Life, you told me, in your opinion, is to live,
and to swallow my tears.


You taught me to clench my fist,
to grit my teeth and stand up
positions and human principles.
Not to betray my friends.
And I succeeded! I learned them willingly.


They call me the ‘tough girl’.
Nobody knows when I'm alone,
how my tired body collapses.
I want to be more of a woman,
and someone to guard my back.


I learned to be a guide, to make a road,
and another in the impassable, in front of me, to tread...
Good things you taught me to fight for!
Like you, Dad, I love today
in a masculine way---relentlessly, gratuitously.
I learned to look like you!