te quiero

This wallpainting crossed my tracks when I tried to avoid the last of this season's carnival parades. On Tuesday, on the sixth day of the annual Cologne mayhem, most neighbourhoods stage their own, small Carnival processions.
Completely forgetting about this I went out for a walk and aimed right for the middle of it. But I found this painting in a small alley, and its longing expression very much reminded me...

... that once someone wrote these two words on a piece of paper and taped them to a yellow door. I passed through that door each day, dressed, undressed, took showers and joked with the other guys. I remember the green rubber floor and the smell of training clothes old, forgotten and dusty.

That was nine years ago. I didn't understand the meaning of those words. I was too dumb too hard too blind and too unwise to get them. Seeing them painted on that wall on Tuesday I was reminded of what felt like a whale mistake.

The person who wrote those two words now lives on the other side of the planet. I can't just call and ask if we could have a cup of coffee together and talk about the paper, the door, the smell and everything connected to them. We are seperated by an ocean, by 7.000 miles, by nine years and meanwhile even by languages. But still. If she would see me, I would go. I would cross the ocean for a cup of coffee and two spoons full of talk.