The Way We Leave... Poem by RIC BASTASA

and so you learn too
being on your own this morning you have
already your itineraries
where to to what to do without

me and without you i too have my
own whattodos wheretogos

life has since become smooth and easier for both of us
when we have parted ways
though we still cling to the same vine of hope
the same house to dwell since our meetings are only at

nights when cold comes flat on the floors and
open windows and there is no moon and there is nothing to

talk about.

i like it this way. Two huge pillars supporting a house
distant from each other and yet still feeling responsible

that this house may not fall and break everything inside it

glasses and dreams
hopes and plates and
pages of the past
and scribbling of the future

we meet again and i do not ask for more
you stay as you are
my name is the same
and i am not sick and ugly

we sleep together
you belong to the side of the mountain
i belong to the side of the sea


our words are plastic.
our dreams are not that fragile anymore

i do not ask for any touch
or retouch
i want you be a bird with large and strong wings
like mine

i am thinking of bigger mountains and higher cliffs
try thinking of storms and ships and deaths

it is this way. The way we leave.