The Rest Announcement.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

in truth i have learned just to be an echo.
though you sound hoarse and sharp, i keep mine
deep and pleasing. i just want you to be happy
and you will never hear any negative comment from
me. Not just you. It is for everyone here in this
room, though, with my status, i too can go back
to my nook and prefer my own importance. This
i did not do. I see to it that everyone of you
here must realize your importance. I try to
justify your errors, smoother the rough edges
of your visions, sometime without you knowing
i give better words for those cliches. when i
go out of this room into the wide windows of
the porch, i carry my silence, and mutter to
myself, what could have been more frank and
mindless. What you heard of me was true, but
i have changed. I am old now and hurting all of
you to make you better people will serve no
purpose. It is almost nighttime and i will be
late for home. The children are not there and
i have no one to talk to. Only my self, sleepy
and tired, and no matter how i justify, the
loneliness creeps in, wanting to announce rest.

case is closed. and no one is to blame.