I Am Not Afraid Of Emptiness Poem by RIC BASTASA

i may not have told you, but now i will tell it to you
three times,

girl, i am not afraid of emptiness
the one that walks upon you when you were once this huge
space like a Gothic church with doors like mountains and windows
like continents

the sound of emptiness reverberates like a tin cup
that falls on the iron rails of this room

it fills every nerve that coils upon itself and forms a hand gripping
for waterfalls

it closes the ears and rips every rational entries that your eyes
write in the pages of your journal

it encloses you like a mental jacket of that new patient
at ward 6,
it walls you in like you are a chair inside the congested kitchen

look, who likes the congestion of the spirits?
who likes the choking of the nicks of time?

who likes a light imprisoned in its own flames
burning itself upon itself like a candle consuming both of its ends?

who like the mezzanine filled with letters that you keep
containing love stories of suicide and escape?

look upon your face too crowded with your senses?
it is a forest with trees killing each other for an ounce of light

roots upon roots and leaves upon leaves this world is too crowded
with unraveling thoughts

i am not afraid of emptiness
i like my windows opening all the days of my life
i like doors without locks
stairs without rails, houses without walls and roofs

i live in open space and yes right here inside my heart
i thrive in its empty spaces without the nerves and the veins