About Us And About Them Poem by RIC BASTASA

we busy for some noble purpose
for instance, i teach and you travel visiting places
where you are needed, as i continue on
burning the fires
of students who want to learn more
as i guide them where legal wisdom lies
in between those wits
and slides of humor
where we finally meet on the serious challenges
of criticisms: what society ought to be? who the leaders must be?
where progress is? what trees can do for this aging earth?
etcetera etcetera

we are angry
for those who search personal pleasures on Sundays
the cock-fighters shouting at the cockpit
the picnickers drunk on the beach
the rumormongers enjoying the headlines of the town
who are pregnant without getting married
who are impoverished by their convictions

they are those that thrive
we are those endangered species
and we are meant to perish

we blame no one then
as we meet again and be so silent.