An Arrangement Poem by RIC BASTASA

.. and so we went to her place
in a house where her only furniture
is a bamboo bed

she holds my face
she kneels down
she kisses my hand
as though she is my slave

... and so something which should not have happened happened
there's that tinge of guilt
i wanted her to say she loves me
but she didn't

she made me happy all the way
all way through that lonely night
on that bamboo bed

that following morning
when she was still fast asleep
i kissed her hair
put something beside her
that she loves most

it will make her survive perhaps for a month
even without love