Heartbreaker

His eyes… you should see them. It’s enough to meet them once to realize that there is an unimaginable universe inside.

Do you know those time spaces that only superheroes can cross? Then, discover parallel dimensions, where your life has taken another direction. It took a while to miss that train, like in “Sliding doors” movie, and everything changed.

Francesco wanders the streets of his city in small steps. Bent over his body, consumed by the weather and pain. He wears scraps of clothes that barely fix him… but he has found this way to numb the loss of his loved ones.

Today Francesco is a homeless man.

But if I dive into his gaze, I can see everything he would have been if he had taken that train.

A distinguished man, holding a newspaper, strolls whistling on his way to work and hides a shy smile under his thick white beard. His family is waiting for him at home.

I approach him… I ask him if he needs anything and he immediately says no. I meet his gaze and my heart breaks!

Never as in that moment I’d have wished for having super powers, to open that time space again and bring it back there, where he would be happy.

Instead, I look down and walk away with silent respect.

In the cross-section of my heart, an awareness lurks: what we see and how we are, is only the result of the last sliding door that has just closed or opened.