When Her Mother Died Poem by RIC BASTASA

when her mother died today
she couldn't care less
for she is
like everyone else in the house
mourning

there is something though which
she cannot forget
the harsh words, the unkind hands,
the long hair pulled to an end,

and this somehow lessens her pains
she looks behind
and then give a sly smile

in this funeral she hides the
honesty of her heart
there is more to life she promises herself
there is more to mothers
and fathers and husbands and children

it is someone that she misses a lot
herself, a bird flying free from the hassle of family
from the branches of the tree
she longs for the sea
the sunless one
the island in the middle of the ocean
the moon without the marshes

something so private that no one understands
even myself
she is now the veiled woman shying away from light
those that hurt her eyes
like stabs of the knife
silver in
the dark,