After The Long, Busy Day Poem by RIC BASTASA

so many words
others so unkind
freed from
the prisons of the
mind,

hurting,
cruelty in rampage
thorns and spikes
biting the
soles of the feet
even of
strangers

the words of love
are still kept
preserved in the
recesses of
the heart

(though bleeding still
and still
healing)

i rest myself
in the hammock
of ropes

i let a black butterfly
hover on my lips

we kiss and
forge a protocol
of silence

on my birthday today
let there be
tranquility between
us
&
the world takes
time to listen
to the ripples
of our souls