Dead For Quite A Long Time.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

breathless is the reason,
it is just this euphemism about having to lose breath
and you may think
it's a way simply out of the ball game
or a movie
like breathless (i.e. sleepless) in Seattle
but really, really
it is not the case of being breathless because you are overjoyed
or has exerted much effort
for joy
or bliss
it is not the case, it is not
it is something else that you cannot figure out
because you are still
too preoccupied with breathing and all
its condiments of air
and space

there will be a time when you see someone you
love in an infirmary
or at bay
and you confess your love and you say
all my life love has always been another and another stranger
without a name, and touch-less and you say
it is breathtaking but
there is never a hand or a pair of warm red lips

breathless because you have been dead for long
and you refuse to acknowledge it