The Last Option.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

if you cannot be the sea
try being an island
and if being an island
makes it worse
(define loneliness)
try being a fish
live in a coral
leave, swim and be lost
in all directions
if somehow you get tired
of this freedom
try the prison of
your own thoughts
live there like a book
open the pages
like a monk
and wander like a word
and if you want it better
(define what is better)
try being a
syllable
or an
atom or a positron
be gone

if being tiny & lost
or invisible makes you
miserable
or vulnerable
try being huge like a
mountain
spread your feet
to the plains
and be a wide world of your
own making

you see, there is this will
this willingness
that if you really want it
you can be everything

but if you get tired of
everything
(I've been there
i know it)
there is one last option that
you can choose

you know it,
i shrug my shoulder
too,
it is that moment
when we embrace
nothing
its arms tight in
our bodies


perhaps that is the last option that we can
take
perhaps that is the only truth
that we are.