If It Tortures You... Poem by RIC BASTASA

i ask you if my poem tortures you
i want to hear from you and if it does
i ask you to quit it there is no use for
this kind of literary torture
it will be quite artless and counterproductive
for a poem is intended for you to bear more fruits
if you were a tree in the middle of this desert
under the hot sun in the midst of the blowing wind
which is going anywhere
and you do not know exactly what is next
going to happen.

if it tortures you please quit it
it is not intended for you.
it is intended for me who finds grace after a torture
who finds after a chaos
who finds challenge in what is hard to understand
at first but comes with a bouquet of
enlightenment after this darkness.