43626 Poem by RIC BASTASA

THE OLDER YOU ARE THE MUTER YOU BECOME

it is true
and let me speak from experience

when you grow old
after you have read so many books

in fact a corridor of books
looking like the catacombs of Allan

you realize that what you know
is too small
from what you have learned

they are nothing but
freckles of your
youth

but this time you do not
raise any eyebrow
for a question

there is that old man who keeps on
saying yes to life

i ask him why and he says
the answers are in the years

but how they talk
is measured in their silence