Like Sealed Letters.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

it does not end because we do not want it to
end.

we cannot stop either because we cannot just do
it.

so i keep writing whatever comes in my mind at this hour
of the night

as you haggle for the sleep goddess to give you some gifts
of sleep

you do not like books you like to simply iron the clothes
which other hands wash and dry on the clothesline

i listen to Handel's messiah as you turn off the study lamp
which you too dislike

we know that love has diminished we are afraid to say it categorically that it is gone

it cannot end we have already built a house, brought the furniture,
created a garden of roses, raised some pigs and dogs,

so we live without love, others do the same, we still have
conversations during breakfast, entertain some nasty rumors,
watch morning TV, share opinions on politics and trade, and
then we go each way

to each his own life for the whole day and then come back at night
sleeping far apart, unmoved by distance,

accepting tradition, sticking it out, like sealed letters.