The Need To Be Shaken Poem by RIC BASTASA

a novice
somewhere in Tamontaka
one day
was asked to take leave and
advised to live his life
outside the silent walls of
the old seminary

he is sad of course
for in his whole life
all he wants is to become
a priest

i ask him the reason
why
he was junked, (a word
too cruel for him
to hear)

he was told
by his superior
'Manny, you need to
be shaken! '

i know what it means.
He didn't

but just the same
i left the place where he wanted to stay

all his life