Rat 3 Poem by RIC BASTASA

you must have heard about what they are saying.
i say, you have seen shadows cast on the walls of ignorance.
my hands are not birds.
they tell you that they are scissors.
my face does not have gentle eyes
did they tell you that what i have are raging balls of fire?
i have heard what you have heard too
that in my world there lives the eye of the storm
that in my orbit, there is this path that destroys
every passer-by
or even the innocent traveler,

i am tired of all these
shadows and shadows

they have not gone deep inside the oceans of my being
they have not felt the gentleness of my sands at the bottom
they are wrong
but in my silence i do not wish to correct that impression.

i know myself and that is enough
instruction at the gate of Delphi
where Tiresias is waiting.