An Old Poem For Enrico Poem by RIC BASTASA

there is a time for
joy enrico

all yours had been
and will always be

sadness and confusion
because enrico

you choose them like
the way you choose

the placards rather
than the notebooks

20 years ago when
you are smitten and

you do not have enough
time to listen to my

silence. we cannot
howl for a long time

enrico. there is a time
to shut up and keep

our tongues and freeze
them inside our mouths


i am tired of the words
like liberty to be released

from a cage like a white
dove in the name of your

new revolution, the massive
one, the one that kills

another thousand brown
monkeys on this forested

part of the world. i am
tired of slogans and epithets

and analytical essays on
a democracy that does not work


i am now into love poetry
enrico. i am into eroticism

i am into a desire that gives
me life. i am into life.

i will not dabble about
a novel on death and

desolation. i will not
go into that dark chasm

anymore enrico. i know
you are still there.