Ensconce Poem by RIC BASTASA

snugly
comfortably do you remember
how we sit before the
tv and watch our favorite
videos,

fiddler on the roof
the sound of music
gone with the wind
the titanic
ghosts
who's afraid of virginia wolf?

and i went higher
than what you expect me
to settle for
higher
than entertainment
even greater than sweet-sour love
i went into
politics
and legalistic movies
and yes
crime does not pay
the who donnit ones
and the
phantom of the opera
and
les miserables
where i think i was finally
reborn
from my slumber
of
noli me tangere


and munich and the black september
i cried, sort of overacting
and you do not believe
and you laugh
deep inside
yourself: this man is gone out of his senses

ensconced, like a bird i perched
and lodged
and installed myself in one corner
of just seeing and listening
like a ship looking for
an anchor
perhaps just to camp
and burrow like Alice's rabbit

so i can find my hiding place
keeping my own home key with
nothing to spare

and i like it here now
nobody looks for me
and i do not have to
answer for any call
or for somebody telling
me to open a door