When You Receive No For An Answer Poem by RIC BASTASA

i have seen how some people react when they receive no for an answer. THe child, he cries so loud, and runs amok, and puts
himself on the ground and dirties himself with the grass and mud.
Vengeful of his mother who says no he cannot have the toy gun.

The teen-age boy who receives no for his love proposal goes to a
certain joint and smokes pot and drinks hard liquor to forget. He whirls in space and loses himself. To forget. To numb his senses. To kill
the pain.

The middle aged employee who gets fired. The job applicant who
never gets hired. The loyal employee denied of an promotion. They get
no for an answer and they roam the streets. They go fast and bang
themselves on hard walls. They are in the normal bad moods and get
hard to deal with. Outbursts of anger. Denial. Depression. Shut. They
shut their doors. They do not open other windows. They do not find
the light at the end of their dark tunnels. They do not see birds that fly
and lead them to another island. They do not bother about the comets
and the wishes of the star that sometimes falls out unexpectedly on dark
nights. Lonely corners. Surrender.

Cold and damp. And lost.And defeat.

Some however still manage to jump over the other side of the fence.
The greener pastures of other dreams hidden by the line of mountains.
The hidden lakes on the valleys. The rainbow that comes when you
experiene the rain.

Some however simply wait. And while waiting for the right season
for them

They just sit there. Gaze at the stars. Paint the clouds.
Some still bother to write Poetry.

And they really make a difference. Like now. You read. I write.