What Could Hurt We Refuse To Say Poem by RIC BASTASA

we sleep because we are too
exhausted

not really because we are enslaved
by the king of
working ants


but we are
we have become the masters
of too much worries

preoccupying ourselves with
this state of
unfeeling

this loneliness that has dawned in our
days

widely awake to an unacceptable reality
dressed in such a fashion of
denial

afraid that we shall be the first breakers of
the law of tradition

people shall mock us at the sacred
places
scared and scarred for soon

we shall be ostracized like
over-sized ostriches

our heads cannot be contained in closed cages
we want to fly
but we are too big for flight

we sleep because we are too exhausted with the sameness of our faces
years have made us twins

and we do not really like it
we need more moments of silence to make a wall

to ship us away from an ocean of familiarity that is killing
what we want to want in love

there is no fire where we sleep
we are cold sculptures heavy in our bed

dusts have accumulated on stuffed arms
teddy bears that need to be thrown away back to the forests

our words are enough to promulgate its judgment
we still like it when we hesitate to say and choose not to say

what hurts.