Will It Be Too Late? Poem by RIC BASTASA

will it be too late
for you to know that you really love me?
now that i have learned
not to love you
anymore
will you come and read to me the poem
that i composed for you?
sorry, but that poem has become
a stranger to my
paradise.
i do not anymore recognize the music
within it
it is sad, it has always been that way
but when i hear you reading it for me
it ceases to be me.
there is no more flare in there
you have turned off the fire
that burns that used to be
day and night
even if you kiss the flame
it is as cold
as the waste water at the
the lawn
the one that i throw at dawn
i guess, we call it
urine.