Letting The Youth Be Poem by RIC BASTASA

youth passes by my window
i am on the second floor
and there are so many of them
some do not wear clothes at all
since it is summer

a girl sits under the shade of a tree
a boy comes with flowers on his hand

another one jumps to the sea
and takes out every cover of his body
another girl follows

do not put malice in what they are doing
in this village, they are still innocent of our sins

you watch them like a flock of sparrows
bathing under the rain
shaking their bodies to remove water
and drying them all again under the watchful sun

i watch these all, and mind you, to be honest
i do not envy them at all