The Lucky Ones and Other Poems

By Manuel Matei

The Lucky Ones

How did they knew when to disappear
and make the best use of their life?

In true Edison style,
disaster led directly to innovation:
the obstacle became the path.
The art of turning adversity into triumph.

In order to do great things
we have to endure tragedies,
to love what we do
and all that it brings us, good or bad.
To use something from everything that comes our way.

You have to lose to win.
You win right after the worst.
You don't like it until you like it.
It looks bad until it looks good.
It's ugly until it's beautiful.

It's fair
to be sad and angry.
But then let it pass.
There's only one thing to do:
jump back and build
the good luck out of your bad luck.

People Like To Slow Down And Watch The Accident

I once saw a woman
right after she was hit by a car.
She was lying in the middle of the road
surrounded by many people
who were watching
and waiting.

Invincible

We started it from scratch, with nothing.
We were young, impatient, arrogant, conceited.
We knew everything.
We did a lot together.
We were invincible.
Nobody liked us.

Border Crossing Point

You learn more from the things that don't work
than the ones that do.

It was the worst travel experience ever.
The sight there itself was a sad joke.
The final blow came when they "checked" us.
I understood that they would not let us pass.

And when I wanted to go to the bathroom,
a good old man from Bucharest guided me:
"Be careful, in there the piss on the floor is ten centimeters deep!"
I could smell it from dozens of meters away
and it was the dirtiest latrine I ever saw.
I went outside, to the wall of the building
– I noticed that others had done this before.

“So this is where my emigration ends – I said to myself:
in the toilet.
I'm done.”