To Be Happy Altogether Poem by RIC BASTASA

yesterday the used plates and stained cups and saucers and spilled coffee and bread with molds
disturbed me

i was thinking about the bugs and the rats and the
bacteria and the disease
and death,

the whole night i could not sleep
i am bothered about the negligence of other people
their lackadaisical attitude and how i should have remedied situation and
cure the diseases of our society

it is a matter of social responsibility and
environmental if not political maturity
saying there is a time for making a difference

this morning my eyes sink inside my sockets
like marbles inside a black hole
and i entertain the idea of the possibility that i may finally
go blind because i think too much about what to do and how to do
things to make this world a better place to live in
and yet i have really done nothing and the possibility that i may have bad karma in the last analysis
is not a remote
happening

i realized that i am not enjoying my life anymore
concerned as i am about the disease
the cockroaches the rats and the
emerging sharp edges of the
sickle that death is carrying in my fields of hay


i make a conclusion that this is not good for me
after all i am part of this mess
that cockroaches infest that rats crawl and dirty with their tiny feet and stinking tail and that all these bacteria despite what science has been doing
still thrive upon their new shapes and wise mutations
that virus love this earth and will always be here to stay
and kill so many

and so....

i tell myself: stop the worrying
learn to accept what is here and then be happy altogether.