You Know What Happens When Love Is Gone Poem by RIC BASTASA

she knows what happens when love is gone:

the sun turns black
and the moon becomes red
and the trees become like
some grass in the
brackish water of
the marshes
where the air
stinks like a pond
where all the frogs
are dead
and rotten

where the dragonflies
are headless
where the wings
of the butterflies
turn into threads

the sea is gray
and the sands
are pins hurting
to our feet

the leaves
are skeletal
and the stems
are spikes
of bicycles
without wheels


you know what happens
when your love is gone

but take a look at me
when you finally decided
to throw my love away

i still bloom
as a mushroom
after the thunder
the lightning
and the storm