Once, If Memory Serves Me Well, Life Was A Banquet Where Every Wine Flowed And Every Heart Revealed Itself.' Poem by RIC BASTASA

once
in that banquet table i drink
and got drunk and danced so wildly
and exposed
my nudity, and people laughed at me
and said: there you are
you are not like us
you are too tiny like a gnat
and stinking like
a glut

i slept that night and they all left me

that morning i gathered my shirt and brief and pants
combed my hair with my fingers and cleaned myself with my own tongue
like a cat with my paw

i gathered all the pieces all the days of my life
and began assembling my parts
alone because they all left me because they all find me ugly
and disgusting

and then i left the place and searched for home
far i have walked and traveled
and never rested

only to find that everything is just within the reach of my own hands
this heart this mind this self
who else? but me, this love this hurt
this peace

the rest are but appendices
and must be discarded.

now life is a private show
even if you cry alone, your tears are still yours
salty, but not bitter
wet but still gleaming.