To A New Found Relative In Facebook Poem by RIC BASTASA

if your wish is just to live in peace
or even just to be alive
then you are just like anybody else
in that old abandoned town
where the only sound that you can hear
is the sound of the bell
of the church announcing another
death.

tell me something more: what do you really want to be in the future?

do not tell me that you will just be a vendor,
or an ambulant worker,
just like your papa, or a shoeshine boy like your grandpa
when he was young,

you know, one must have a dream
call it an ambition to have hope
dreams are free, you do not need to pay
that is our freedom
do not deny yourself that

you can be a lawyer, a doctor, a fireman
an engineer,

or even just be a lover,
a man,

do not just exist, or live, think some more
there is more to life
than just sitting down, waiting, and all too boring...