To My Nephew For Him To Learn Poem by RIC BASTASA

you want something to hold on
i give you my hands
and i will hold you
and you will grip it to prevent
you from falling
and hurting yourself

do not be too confident
for there will come a time
in fact
a moment that you will never forget
in your entire life
for i will loosen my hold on you
put grease on my fingers
and your hands will slide
and you will fall and hurt yourself
that much
that the pain will not just disappear
in a day
you will blame me
and tell me that i betray you
but that will only be for a while
by then
the pain and what you think as the betrayal of a trust
has given you the hardest lesson in your life

you will suffer the way i suffer
you will learn the way i learned life from the harshness of
your grandfather
and that same betrayal too
shall not be forgotten in the entire life
of
yours truly.