43568 Poem by RIC BASTASA

NOSTALGIA

AN old friend of mine is bringing
me to the place where he received the yes of his
wife

it will take us a day of travel, then we walk another
three kilometers until we reach a grassy portion of the hill
overlooking a little town far north

when we arrived there he fell silent
closed his eyes and recited silently his prayers

we only spent twenty minutes there as i gaze
on the grass, the trees and the clouds

now at 54 i think i know what he felt
saying prayers for the dead right in the spot where life was taken away

where love did not die.