The Visit Poem by RIC BASTASA

Cousin Salud, this visit is brief
We would rather be concise about what we really want to say
But there is no way to be blunt
About our common miseries, your children not bearing any
Children while we too, have survived the years without
Knowing how a baby cries, how the diapers would have to be
Changed, how we blamed our past and forefathers about their mistakes their sins imputed to us
So we have our present state-of-affairs
Pasted on our skins and foreheads

I’ll take a bottle of beer in exchange for the joke
Of infertilities, how the egg and the sperm never meet
And how the uterus does not want any organism to sleep
On its bed, well we do not really mind
The misery that we think we have
It exists only in your mind
This visit will be brief and we would rather be concise
With what we really want to say
We are not miserable, we live the life of the sojourners
The palmers the pilgrims we travel a lot with nothing to carry
In our back, except this digital camera that clicks and clicks

You see, we always wear our smiling faces
Behind us are the shadows of green hills
On the side are the blue seas and coconut trees

If you can only see what is facing us
You will be glad
They are our friends cheering us telling us always
To smile and say Cheez!