He filled himself with emptiness, and it was the absence that oppressed his chest. A void that accompanied him, growing heavier during the nights. He lived to forget himself; he ran to avoid himself. The empty elevator, the crowded office, the gym, the traffic jam, the anxieties, lunch, dinner, the fear, and the distant gaze were all measures to avoid confronting himself.

What would he say to himself if he could? What truth would he rub in his own face? What sadness would he choose to cry over? He pushed love away when love chose him. And perhaps that was his great malady. Yet not greater than his inability to realize that this was exactly what he suffered from… Urban, alone in the concrete jungle…

In the hustle and bustle of city life, he lost himself in the daily grind, escaping into the noise and commotion to silence his inner turmoil. He wandered through the labyrinth of concrete and steel, a solitary figure amidst the faceless crowd, seeking solace in the anonymity of urban life.

Every fleeting interaction, every rushed exchange, served as a barrier against the self-reflection he so desperately needed. He was a stranger to himself, a ghost in his own life, haunted by the echoes of his unaddressed fears and unspoken desires. His heart ached with a longing he couldn’t name, a yearning for connection that he continuously denied.

He wondered if he could ever break free from the cycle of avoidance, if he could ever find the courage to face himself and embrace the love he kept at bay. For in the depths of his solitude, he knew that the key to his liberation lay in the very truths he was too afraid to confront. And so, he wandered, urban and alone, in the endless search for the self he had lost in the concrete jungle. 😞

©️ Beatriz Esmer