To A Nephew Who Dislikes Education.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

at first my goal is to
educate you, even without books to read
since you hate
pages.

i take you to travel with me
and i answer all your questions.

taste is a matter of
cultivation. it is not born it is made.

you are born. I want to make you
sometimes
i am tempted to sculpt you into my own shape
to draw you
into my own image. It is defeating.
I am only one.

You are the product of
the masses
the tendril of technology
copied
and pasted
without original
thought.

who sculpted me?
i cannot point to a single name
but i take
pride in my
shape and
sound

you say there is so much
angst in
my face
and you ask where is
beauty there?


for now i have no answers.
i am taboo.

i let you go.
let us see how the storms
will shape you
how the fading light
shall
color you

unfinished painting with
no
fixed value yet

you have become my new
excitement
as nature shall take you
as another
experiment of
mankind


next to suffer.
watch out.