A Litany Poem by RIC BASTASA

recall the years
what do you remember? those baggy pants of college years
and leather belts tight around your waist

a grassy soccer field
some husky men playing their games

a bench where five women are sitting
each hand with ice cream melting on each cone

the corridor where she waits for you
and the corner where you evade her gaze

the stairs leading you to the fourth floor
and the silent people who dwell there

the harsh microphone on the first year
welcoming you from that far mountain

a room filled with books and notes
a lampshade that blinks without end

a coconut bed with bugs that bite him
as he sleeps soundly without minding

some empty rooms on the left wing
teeth are gnashing there and your silence

tiptoeing feet of drunken roomates
hiding the empty bottles under their beds

it is a litany of images of the past
like some fireflies at night i shall let them go

i close this jar and there is nothing inside it
nothing to entice at all but just to remember

and then forget and then i move on
my feet with its new shoes are always ready to go