Agrarian Unrest.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

my father is a landlord.
He sent me to a big university in the city.
I studied philosophy.

The university taught me about equality.
Compassion. We studied existentialism
The poverty of the masses.
The agrarian unrest.
The essence of man
The quality of life
Justifications of living
Explanations of death
After life.

I wrote a class report about a child who ate
only a handful of rice for breakfast
plus brown sugar as viand
and then a glass of water for his thirst
from the nearby river
and then he was left in the house
as his father works in the field
and his mother
sells vegetables in the market.

When i left the child, The
heavy silence of the world fell upon my shoulder.

One day father took me for a vacation in our land.
There are mountains. Lots of trees.
A beautiful place.

There is a house there
Dilapidated. A tenant lives there
There is a hungry child.
Drought. Long hot days.

I pity the poor condition. But i no longer ask for the cause.
Then the tenant asks me if i can give him land.
Or a part of father's land.

I have no answer.
I could have told him, I do not own anything,
I do not live here
and father is still alive...


And wants me to be firm and cruel.