Ars Poetica Poem by RIC BASTASA

HOW CAN i tell you something that i do not want to tell you?
how can i let you hear my voice without me uttering a single syllable?
how can i tell you know what i feel and yet
deep within my heart, i wish you do not know a single pulse
of blood in my veins?
HOw can i be so loving to you, and yet show you that i do not care at all?
How can i be in so much pain and then
you do not feel the salt of my tears?
How can i say and yet say not?
How can i be myself and be without you on my side?
how can a snail be a snail without a leaf to stay upon?
HOw can i pretend to be a cloud and you
my leaf, my flower
as nothing but a land without a river?
how can i be so confused amidst the certainties of my life?
this luxury in poverty? This pain covered with white icing?
this sweetness deep within
the lumps of sorrow?
understand and not understand at the same time?
to go and to stay.
to live and yet die.

only through this.
this narrow door where an elephant
has entered.