Getting Away From A Responsibility Poem by RIC BASTASA

a child open his arms in Asilo
asking if i can be his father,
without answering him in words
my arms hug him in return

i lift him from the ground and
feel his heart beating unto mine
there is a connection between
two hearts in that thick line of emptiness

between two kinds of loneliness
a child understands it well i think

i didn't
in my age where my hair refuses to
be white
or gray
i am given more options like an ocean
where i am but a very small ship

the child has none
he can only be a bird without wings
drowning at sea

he sleeps and i give him back to the
penguin

oh, i have more places in my heart
less any child

i am a man with so many homes
wanting to be a vagabond again