This Fun Poem by RIC BASTASA

it's fun
in fact it's more fun
being here

i am thinking
a lot

about people that
i've met
that i barely know

there are only
glimpses
outlines of their lives
in such
a short conversation

it makes me feel
so elated
comforting me that
i am not alone
in this...
say,

sorrow joy
sweet-sour memories
like fish and sauce
on a platter

this fun thing
it's more fun really
on these islands

i am taking more
hours of my life
on the plane

hopping from one island
to another
threshing out stories
of real people
that i met
and talk with
in such a short
witting hours

i do not care
anymore
if what they are
telling are true

does not really matter
sort of
short stories themselves
that they are
weaving
like spiders
in the far corners
of the cities

it's more fun
to be frank with you

merely listening
somehow
the words that travel in my ears
make my senses full

i am not alone
all of them
are telling me

this world is a place
of stories
sounds and colors

it is real
they are all telling me

how come
that i did not really know that?

must i be dumb?
or was i just sleeping for all those years

or simply pretending
to know a lot
from books and pages of the newspapers

?

i am seeing a big river
i put myself inside a wooden boat
take the paddle
and start my way
in the water

i stop a while
to touch the ripples

and then
we are going

into something that we have
never know

under the moon
my shadow speaks