A Thrill Of Hope Poem by RIC BASTASA

you love and fail
and you want to die
the heart that loves and fails
shirks and shrinks like a drying grape to the desert sun

raisin, look at you, you have become a raisin
wrinkled fruit,
shrinked to the size minimal to the existence
desired, you dry some more, taking away all the life
possible in your skin and bone

the desert sun is cruellest
in you
so unforgiving so determined to shrink you
more than a raisin
this cruelty can turn you into a stone

the night has come
this thrill of hope comes like a comforting friend
to tell you raisin,

keep the sweetness still
for tomorrow's bitterest spill
the cruelest sun
the deadliest ever
on this desert sun the hottest sands

and you will not surrender
the hope is still there

the dream is this oasis somewhere
the bedouin and his coming camel

who knows? and when?