Give Back To The People Their Poems Poem by RIC BASTASA

every poem written
was taken from them

picked from the slums
and the public market
and the churches and
lonely houses and
dirty bus stations

like an empty tin can
of milk or a rotten tomato
or an abandoned shoe
a leaflet, a flat tire,
uprooted trees, and
scattered garbage

you heard what that
woman vendor said
about the price of her
fish and the price of
rice and the price of
gasoline that seem
to be irreconcilable

you write them everyday
the recent stabbing
at the gasoline station
and the kidnapping
for ransom in that
old city where the
mayor got most the
the ransom money

you write them everyday
giving them a voice
in your world of poetry
these truths that you
have taken away from
them: it is time to return
them what is due them

do not ever be silent
move on, create the
lovely noise, spread the
word that the poems
on that ivory tower
are not there anymore