Absence 
' Ausência '
   

For a long time I thought absence was need. 
And bemoaned, ignorant, that need. 
Now I do not bemoan it.
There is no need in absence.
Absence is a state inside me. 
And I can feel it, white, so fastened, snuggled together in my
                                                                   [arms,
that I laugh and dance and invent joyous cries, 
for absence, this incorporated absence, 

will not be stolen from me by anyone any longer.

- Carlos Drummond de Andrade