I Like This To Be Just Mine Poem by RIC BASTASA

what used not to hurt
begins to feel

you keep it inside
hoping that it will just shrink

and be gone
it spreads and you hide it with a

scarf or a hood
it spreads some more like a woman's long


black hair which the wind catches
that smell that it brings to the sea

to another island
where the one who really loves you

smells and comes back to take you
away from me

as i get stuck on the mud of my own feet
deceived by the fairies of

my own pride
slowly eating me like the pizza

with cheese still hanging on your chin
waiting to be cleaned