The Innumerable
The innumerable live in us;
when I think or feel, I do not know
who it is thinks or feels.
I am merely a place
of feeling or thought.
I have more souls than one.
There are more I’s than myself.
I exist nonetheless
indifferent to them all.
I silence them: I speak.
The conflicting impulses
of what I feel or do not feel
dispute inside who I am.
I ignore them. They dictate nothing
to the one I know. I write.
by Fernando Pessoa
from Poetic Outlaws