..Of Madness And Atrocity Poem by RIC BASTASA

some have been
looking for the exact spot
of happiness

where is it? to a snake where
does it lie?

sometimes that very spot
is beside death itself

which keeps on reminding
not to touch it unless you too
are willing to pay the
price

a boy about to reach manhood
touches it with his finger and
he becomes ill

her mother had gone to consult the
witch doctor who tells about the exact
spot where death lies
beside a brief moment of pleasure
that every boy wants to become

the men have become accustomed to this
and having earned so much money
they pay the price for other to die
for them

and the women who dream of power love
this event that had taken a toll on the lives
of ambitious poor men
from faraway lands whose villages are nothing
but dots
in the map of madness and atrocity.