Until The Boy Becomes A Man.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

the father
comforted his heart broken son
who could not forget his first love
an Australian blonde from the nearby bar,
and the father got mad telling him
why cry for that girl, you weakling!
there so many girls out there waiting for you.
and the boy still cried like a baby
still crying for his lost toy.
and the father slapped him to wake him
up to this real world,
where love is surreal, where one must survive
on flesh and to flesh and to more flesh
rather than the soul.

and the boy cried until he becomes a man.
solid, strong, and wise, and shall never
cry for a woman again.

and then he remembers his father
visits him in his grave and gives him
the thumbs up sign.