Absence

For a long time I thought that absence is lacking.

And pitied, Ignorant, the lack.

Today I dont regret It

There is no lack in absence.

The absence is a being in me.

And I feel It, white, so close, snug in my arms,

Who laugh and dance and make merry exclamations,

Because absence, this assimilated absence,

No one steals it from me anymore.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade