To Die Is To Rest. A Hero At His Best. Poem by RIC BASTASA

and so i guess
Jose you must have
been carrying those
heavy loads in
your heart
and it has outbalanced
your walk
as you lean to the other
side of this
earth
like a boat about to
sink in an hour or
so

haven't i told you to
dislodge all these
as there is a storm and
the boat cannot
take that much
to save itself from
the lashing tongues of
the Indian ocean?

jose you are hardheaded.
you are too cruel to yourself.

in the middle of this storm
the pianist is playing a piece
before everyone dies.

a fiddler is doing its thing
in the middle of all these
senseless noise.

a little boy is crying looking
for mother
as all the others are running
in chaotic directions
hoping to save their
asses.

a rat is quizzical
it does not understand
what all these
so called humans are doing.

meanwhile a yogi is
as expected
calm and unperturbed

the music is so beautiful
and it is not clapping.

rizal writes his last
farewell and i like it
when he said

to die is to rest.
a hero at his best.

and so it happens
in the middle of the
parks
and other kiosks
his monument there
solidly stands.