Who Greets Her? Poem by RIC BASTASA

she prays hard in church
since it is her birthday today

and she arrives and opens
the red steel gate of the house

and i see her coming with
a black umbrella as it is raining

and i ask her who remembers her
on her birthday today? who greets her
a happy birthday?

i guess merian, i expect genie,
or momma, or gerry
or any name of the good
neighborhood

and she says, candid and true,

'oh, the ants and flies and
cats and pigs! '

i guess. like me,
she is just in love
with metaphors again.

i imagine the pigs most.
And i will
surely invite the flies who
are at war with the ants.

and the cats
are already here, as usual
licking their paws
and taking
their naps again.