A Tiny Sad Song Poem by RIC BASTASA

when you were once a girl
as tiny as a memory
you wish to be like a geisha
serving men
in a nice conversation
that was how you see things
on the limitations of what they have
seen for you
that you too have seen for yourself
Japan is your only country
to be free from your own impoverished country

the leaves of the mahogany tree
all fall out from its branches
one day
showing the beauty of its bare twigs

that was long ago
and then you turn into a woman
and you do not want to talk about it anymore
the mountains know
how ugly is the nudity of the trees
how bare
a mind becomes when deprived of its own thoughts