Intermittent Goings And Comings... Poem by RIC BASTASA

and then
most of them
are gone

marianne left
when her mother
was sick and
jun before that
burned their
house

we cannot deny
the success of others
nena's son is now
a pilot
deborah's daughter
enter the nunnery
joseph's cousin
got a u.s. visa
and so on and so forth

different forms of
happiness
bliss in different hues
joys in blasting
colors

at the boulevard as
we walk
we have become familiar
with the sameness of
sunsets and sunrises

accepted finally the
cycle of life
a pendulum of arrivals
and departures

they say that we diminish
ourselves
with all the goodbyes

we look at each other
we shake our heads and then
walk away bringing with us
the intermittent comings and
goings of
laughters and silences

and then we too
are gone
we know that from
the very
beginning......