Awesome! Poem by RIC BASTASA

IT is your word, but could be mine, when you
saw the pictures,
of little boys and girls posing
for the centerfold of
mama's love, where papa is nowhere to be found,
or uncle's attention,
because mama has not been good enough to
call them
pretty,

awesome!

it is your word for the ricefields
green, filled with the light of the sun,
where the white herons
are friends with the black carabaos
pasture
graze, graze, till the afternoon ends,
the day
when the sea is calm and the sand
so white
unblemished by any man's sadness
or any woman's grief,

awesome!

you saw the old man and the old woman
hugging
missing the moments of their youth
now in each other's arms again
despite
names forgotten and places gone away

awesome!

it is always your word against mine
as i take the pictures
rehearsing them again in my mind
now
with captions and human conversations
in low key

where shall we go next and gather
and then again remember?