The Father Of Man Poem by RIC BASTASA

THERE was this child
whom Mama shooed
away when the doctor of
the village comes once
in a while

he was the same child
whom Papa left home
when he went away on
a hunting trip for days
and comes back with the
head of wild deer

his eyes are lonely peeping
upon a hole of the wall where
the termites live for years
silently consuming everything
that was built there

no one is lonely forever
sometimes loneliness grows
an edifice
and then a fence
where that lonely smile is
kept away
from everybody

when both Mama and Papa
passed away
when the doctor met his
untimely death
when the head of the deer
was stolen away
when the termites came
triumphantly

when everything that hurt him
becomes forever
forgotten

this child has become the father
of man
who now writes you
this poem