Catching Breaths Like Words Poem by RIC BASTASA

the difference between
you and me

is not the sameness of
our miseries

the difference is that you
are an open window

that has closed again
but i am a window that i

broke and never close
because there is no more reason

to keep me closed i am
sinfully opening to the

changes of the clouds &
the course-less drifting of the wind

i do not pay attention
to direction now
except perhaps on the basics

of having to feed my day to
day existence

when you arrive here
i am no longer myself

and then you leave
saying i am the useless wind

of the house and i deserve
no room at all

early in the morning
before i become myself again

words rain in my eyes
like tears

salt to my tongue and
biting

i want to put them in a
bowl

treat them like salad
days

but i do not eat words
neither do you

so i let them pour
on the vacancies of the

floor and they drip on
the earth and

gone & i said i have no
time for thoughts

thoughts do not help me
find my arms

i rush to go and be myself
again

on the wings that you
detest

above everything else
i resume

catching breaths
like words

feeding myself like
paper