RIC S. BASTASA

he shall betray you and you know it
he is fed up with what you are not
but he shall keep you, not because love is there
on that nest of being together

it is the law that keeps things in tact
and with full maturity, neither love nor hate
can tear what is interwoven

you are there with a headdress and he is there with his
pipe on his mouth
smoke rises in the air
continuously
inside that frame of nothing
but black and white