For My Peers Who Made It Good In The Big City Poem by RIC BASTASA

it was with a sad heart that i left all of you
from that big city that promised to give me all the glitter
of the neon lights
an island of fame where my body
and my face shall take
the center of the stage
where i may wallow in the deafening
sound of clapping hands
and a shower of flowers
as i sing and dance
and be the star of all your
dreams and wishes

i am twisted
you all write me a letter
i am hardheaded
you condemn me for i broke the promise
of what i could have been

i choose the little town by the sea
where the waves all speak of sorrow
where the trees grow unprecedented and without pruning
the ugliness of their branches speak of ill-will and
pronounced unfashionably
nature's untrammeled simplicity

the newspapers speak of your breakthroughs
all your names in bold letters and colored
your cars and mansions your latest creations
your glory and victories

my day begins in silence and it ends in silence
i sleep with nightmares i talk my walks at midnights

how can i be so stupid? all the leaves ask me, and all the trees
when i begin to speak, run barefoot away from me
the eggs of little birds on the nest on branches falling and broken and wasted