There Is No World, No Other World For Me Poem by RIC BASTASA

today, mama, i will tell you
now that you are dead
today, papa, i will tell you,
now that you have long been
dead and buried
and rotten and
dusty

i have no other world for me out there
not the law, not the magic of
your wish for the sciences,

not the purse, not the gun, not the house
or the land, not the scent of money,
not money, not the cows
and carabaos, not the cottage
not the beach

this is my world now
within the confines of the coffins
of poetry.

i am bound. i am caged, i am free
at last.