A Tour Poem by RIC BASTASA

it is here where on the first day
everyone is excited to know each other's names

endless hellos
each wanting what we do where we come from

fourteen days of roaming around
from one city to another
one changing landscape to another
imposing landscape
each night a different hotel
a different meal

on the last day
the bonding fades as one prepares
for the good bye

the tall man who happens to be
a dentist delivers its impeccable speech
in English
saying that soon we part
and then we go back to our own realities

at the airport in that connecting flight
we saw both of you waiting for your connecting flight
back to Australia

we passed by
and here we are strangers again to each other
as we board our own plane
back to home
16 flights hours away....