For All These That I See Today Poem by RIC BASTASA

wilted grass on the pasture land
emaciated water buffaloes
dried river beds
the well without water
humid air and dusty roads
to the village on a rice shortage
birds in flocks moving away
sick babies and panicky mothers
hopeless fathers thinking about
another revolution

a government stripped of moral authority
arming itself strengthening wire fences
building more walls and students out-of-school

muted press and more speeches from the
political departments justifying reason

for all these that i see today
i have seen them all yesterday
during my youth my rebel days
when i was not so careful then
when i never thought of the danger
when i though i do not die

history unfolds again before me
we are not strangers we are in fact on a familiarity

how can we ever talk like friends again?
how can i run away from society for the second time?

how can i vomit and eat all these rancid food
these spoils, these trash, this enormous silence?