How Are You? Poem by RIC BASTASA

the winds are strong today and the leaves fall from the trees
they struggle for space in the garden

the sea is mad and raging like a rush of a man wanting to be brave
the sea caps are whiter and foamy like the babble of the unhappy woman

how are you? i sometimes ask that to myself and people begin
to answer (it was not for them somehow

perhaps the man over there hears the whisper of my mind to my ear
and he says also upon himself (I am not ok, i have this pain in my heart
i have this pain in my belly)

how are you? i am asking you and you are so far away from me
my words are sleepy but i still wonder now: why do you insist that my lies

are true? why do you prefer beauty than truth?