Drinking Poetry Poem by RIC BASTASA

at first glance
you taste its first sip

it is bitter and had always been
as bitter as grief

and you drink it anyway
everyday

until then when bitterness
does not taste bitter anymore

and then you drink it anyway
everyday

and everyday you drink cup by cup
poetry

your friend do not believe you
doing this
they cannot take it anymore
you drinking this bitter
concoction
everyday

you are true to this calling
drinking poetry
until it has become your habit
your vocation

your mission to write all that you feel
all that you can

what they do not know
is this freedom this blood from poetry
bitter and salty and sometimes bland
has become so sweet as honey

and these sap caused the growth of
your feathers and wings

and then one day you fly away
far away so so far away

to that clouds and mountains to that castle of the gods
and goddesses

and there you drink with them
and there they welcome you as one of them