Those Younger Years..... Poem by RIC BASTASA

those years
when we were young

we take no malice
naked bathing in the river

we bask our bodies
open to the sun

we feel the flatness of
the rock bed in our backs

when mother called
we have the unison of silence

we rush dressing up
leaving our underwears

we did not like school then
inferior as it was to the wind and the sea

to the cliffs and fog
to mountain peaks and waterfalls

we are all misshapen
into the cruelty of the literal

we are the stuffed toys of
this working world

the marionettes
of skyscrapers


when we meet again for the reunion
we will not mentions how we have become aliens to ourselves

so ashamed that we begin to drown ourselves
inside a glass of champagne and whiskey and

shallow and silly and superficial
conversations.