What Paradise Is? Poem by RIC BASTASA

when he was a child
he dreams of snow
and always love the
scent of apples

he hates the rain
and sun in his country
he dislikes starapples
and mabolos

his parents are poor
and all those days of his life
he thought he suffered

one day he escaped to America
and transferred to Canada
and true enough he had lots
of apples to eat
and heaps and heaps of snow
he met

whatever happened to him?
he comes back to his country
misses the rain and the sun
and the taste of starapples
and mabolos

he asks himself, why have i not
realized
what paradise is?





i guess the world does not
end. My wife says it is we
that end. Curtains fall.
The actors are out. The
stage remains.

The theater is still there.
As the city lights flicker
deep in the nights
where people walk and talk
not so conscious of their
endings.