For Those Who Grieve Poem by RIC BASTASA

no one
no one can really stop you
from eating the bark of the tree
the thick skin of the
fruit

no one can tell you what should have
been proper
or better

you like the skin and you throw away
the fruit that could have
satisfied your
thirst and hunger

the bark has poisoned you
the moon has warned you too well
the worm is wriggling
its frail and elongated
body

you have no ears
your sense of smell so badly damaged

and now you
are dying

no one tells you that life is as sweet
as the ripe fruit of the tree
that luscious flesh that flowing
juice

your gaze is sharp as a knife
stabbing even the
sun

and you are always right

what you have been searching
that can satisfy your hunger and thirst
is not found on the fruit
not even in the tree

it is in the poisonous bark
that useless skin
that silly coat

definitely it is not even here
where we are all grieving