Not Me Poem by RIC BASTASA

yes, the ordinary person that you meet
in our town
you do not even know my real name
other than Mister
but i do not really mind
i like it that way
just being another ordinary person
the one that smiles when you smile
at me
as i pass by you and you too pass by me
i do not stare
not that it is unethical but because i have my own thoughts
to ponder for the day

how i live my life in privacy
away from the mob
the crowd
the many
the extraordinary demands of the society
like how the ocean dissolves me
like a drop
in anonymity

i like just being myself
a glistening dew on the petal of a rose
that i put on the glass vase
all alone on the table

yes alone but not really lonely
just being special
to myself

this solitude
regaining strength from the past,

those old days
when my mind was murdered
because i did not bother to guard it
from the multitude
from them
not me