Those Who Truly Loved Poem by RIC BASTASA

they say that those who truly loved
have become so vulnerable, euphemistically speaking,
they have become so foolish to surrender everything

do you remember the lion king who had his sharp teeth removed
his claws cut and his roar suppressed? they say it was a fable
about love, and they say that the moral lesson of the story is
as simple as being so stupid about love and then be defeated
by the pretentious lover. Ouch! You're dead.

they say those who truly loved have become the characters of
the romantic movies, the famous figures of the opera house,
the unforgettable tragedies, the stigma, the catharsis of life.

today i am offering flowers for those who truly loved and offered
their lives. They are silent. They are dead.

Ask me. I am alive. I am not a pig.