Why Are You Ignoring Me? Poem by RIC BASTASA

friends, we call ourselves friends, used to be
whatever i have
we share, always you get half of the burger
i eat, always you share. we always move together
on borrowed time, we always read together
on borrowed books, those times when we were poor
and wretched and disregarded
by them,

i guess, you have learned the tricks of distance
its fruits, indifference, its ways, hectic schedules,
and the flow of which is
rapid, like the Niagara, the falls of affection
and remembering

you have always ignored me now
my hello
muted, what has happened then, tell me?

we always shared half of what i have
you have taken
half of what i am, shall i continue living
on this
incompleteness? you have ignored me
always
like you are always, offline, offline,

you have challenged me enough
after 26 years, i have also learned the tricks of
a hundred
indifferences,

i am taking this road, you have taken that
you have been silent
i beg, i bet, i cannot die
alone, i want to live, i want still to know

why, my friend, you left, why my friend, you have
not spoken? all those years

on a cross-eyed point of view
or plain sadness out there?