Our Obligations Towards This World Poem by RIC BASTASA

showered with rights
from birth and even to the last breath
i also impose upon myself
these obligations: that i be not another burden
to your suffering
that i be but a gentle wind passing
touching your hair with the comfort
that i like you
is another free soul
a body with the limitations of my skin
so my bones may not fall
before you
that i must project the image of
the smiling
cheerful son of God
the pains i subsume
the hurts that i do not bother myself with
the walk of a man satisfied
with what is given
the look of the day's happy hour
alone, must i suffer
alone, i must not tell

for you too have burdens of your own
shall i have the shame of
adding mine?

i go where fate takes me
and i won't stop till everybody is happy.

that i am not a burden to you
and you not to me perhaps,
is enough of this good life

a basket of white daisies
an apple in my hand
a little singing bird on my hair
a red rose for you.