Ronnie Poem by RIC BASTASA

My friend Ronnie when he
retired as literature teacher invested
his money in books

he bought crates and crates of
books from the United States
and brought them
to the Philippines

to include a number of his favorite
poetry books bearing such authors
as frost, walt, derek, etcetera
and he invites me in
for some hours
as he loves to read these poems aloud
and discuss the meaning of
each metaphor

for he is a poet in his own little way
a right he claims somehow
and modesty aside i also write some
published sometimes
and he finds me
a compliment to this blank spaces

and so we indulge in this higher
state of literary affairs until he could not
accept that i know more about
his favorite poet than he does

i mean, i know it by heart
he sometimes gets away from this kind of loving
until he gets offended and shies away
from my own way of
intellectual desperation

he did not invite me anymore
his books took the revenge
letting in more dusts more dusts more dusts
with no finger prints

until he died, his greed for books went with him
the books that till date,
remained virgins.