To Have Suffered Long Enough Poem by RIC BASTASA

Do not equate morality and holiness
to priesthood

a priest is no more no less like everyone else

seeking for the light and
still not finding

if you find the light, do not tell me your name, where you work, where you are,
what is your name, or even why

do not tell me how, i like to find it myself

they say i have mine but i do not really know where

if i had it burning in my head
i should have been burned

if it were inside my heart
my veins would have been charred

i do not content myself with light alone
i am asking for fire

the one so huge, the one that burns the house
of my ancestors

the one that must burn me alive
because

i have suffered long enough