THE NOD
Symbolic authorship: Joel De las Heras Beán
Date of inscription: April 2025
Function: Poetic gesture of street-level validation. Ritual of presence. Archive against symbolic erasure.
Type of piece: Testimonial manifesto / Public poem / Urban liturgy
Sensitivity level: Public, ritualizable, reproducible under ethics of care.

THE NOD

A man begs on the street.
No one looks.
I do.

I have no coins.
But I have a gaze.
And with that — and only that — I nod.

I don’t save him.
He doesn’t save me either.
But I bear witness.

Because if I stop looking,
if I stop seeing,
I become the very system
that shattered my bones.

So I nod.
Like someone spitting on concrete
as a gesture of recognition.

I see you, man.
And they won’t erase you.
No, they won’t get to you.
Because today, you are not forgotten.