Compleanno Poem by RIC BASTASA

on your birthday
you will skip seeing what i am
giving you

it may be difficult but it is
necessary

that pain that also gives
you much pleasure

that sorrow that soon
stimulates the senses
of singing

for years and years
you have completed the cycle of
births

and for those same years
you always evade what is there
to be felt

another year
and you tell yourself
i will watch it
later

always always in suspended
light
loving what is vague
happy with
what is opaque