A Frame Of Reference Poem by RIC BASTASA

we did not buy
a new fabric
it is too expensive
and we have
no money

what we did
we opened our trunks
and remember

we took all those old
clothes
that of our ancestors
who died
with all their own sorrows
too

we cut them into small pieces
we do not remove the dusts
and stains

we assemble them into one
collage
including our tattered pieces
too

and then we see the whole picture
of who we
are
what this family is all about
what humanity is

then we frame
this creation
and from there we move on
as though
nothing happened