This Is Just One Of Those Places Poem by RIC BASTASA

the pond is gone
what took place was a change
that replaced it with
concrete pavements

the lanzones trees totally
vanished
i can still hear the cutting
machines
shouting victory for change
what the sowed instead
are low cost houses
thriving like mushrooms

this is just one of those places
that the heart wants to remember
but who cares?

many may not have known that from
the heart of this ruined place
once bore the great writer and poetess

when once a child
she bathed in that pond
gathered ripe guavas from those trees
rested under the shade of
the mabolo tree
composed the great lines
that we still love to read till these days
of our great depression

many will not remember anymore
but once there were dwellers here
in peace and harmony with
nature and themselves

oh, all of them have gone to other places
and we who have turned to stone
have no way of finding once again their traces.