In The City... Poem by RIC BASTASA

in the city at noon
while you want to get some sleep
(siesta time as we like it)
the sound of the siren comes
a man is dying and rushed to the nearby
hospital for an emergency treatment

another sound of a siren
has arrived and you learn that a house on
the sixth street is burning

and there will be more sounds
in the middle of this bustling city
the sounds of screeching taxis
like people quarreling
the sounds of broken windows
glasses falling hit by the stones of the
strikers and the protesters of an unfair
regulation or law

you are impatient
and so tired
and then finally amidst the
cruelty and the indifference
of the chaotic situation
you finally fall asleep

soundly and peacefully
as you finally adopt
to the realities of this situation
for all those
which are there and which you cannot
change
you flex yourself, you jibe
accept and
submit with the last principle at hand

asking, do I have the choice?