How Happiness Is Made... Poem by RIC BASTASA

the old man puts
an empty coconut shell
beside a mahogany tree
and fills it with water

he feeds the dog first
and then the cats
and then what remains
unconsumed

belongs to the birds
who wait by the branches of
the trees

to take what belongs to them
after all had left...

the old man fans himself
under the shade of his
humble home and watches
the birds peck on the
morsels and the grains...

hums his songs again
together with the birds...