Or Existence Poem by RIC BASTASA

look at you
you take pride of myriad leaves
of branching twigs
of a sturdy trunk

you are saying you are
well rooted
and strong and no
wind is good enough
to uproot you

look at me
i have no roots
i am bald for i have not
a single leaf
from my imaginary
branches
from my twigs which you say
do not exist at all


you laugh and take pride
with what you are
and what you own andwhat you keep


i am invisible and i have no word
that i own

i am not even a wind
since i do not touch your leaf
and cannot let you feel

i do not doubt that it is my mere silence
that horrifies you

and i thank myself
for just being this way

i have no name
i have no self
i merely pass by
and i do not come
back

and so beyond myself and all these
you are nothing too

as i perceived myself to be
not a wind not a sound
nothing about roots

or existence.