A Beautiful Family... Poem by RIC BASTASA

BJ grandson is looking good
at the pool
TJ daughter a doctor by profession
is going to marry soon another doctor
from Bacolod and it will be a grand wedding
despite the pandemic
Husband Nap is making more money
with the investments of his lump sum
retirement
granddaughter ND is a promising artist
soon to be launched by a music company
on a Sunday, the family chills
beside the pool, a picture taking shall
show such a beautiful and happy family
trying to tell the world that this kind of
happiness still exists
by God's grace and hard work and
perhaps luck too

well, that is not really true, there are missing
facts somewhere,
the nightmares of Mommy
the tragedies of AJ
the missing sorrowful parts of this jigzaw
puzzle which we all want to hide and bury
as thought these kinds of chaos
and misfortunes
do not really exist for in truth we still love the lies
and we still entertain deceptions
to keep things intact,
to keep sanity, to keep life the way we want it to be
rather than what it really is
on the table.