You Know How To Mix The Oil And The Water Poem by RIC BASTASA

between the oil and the water
put the soap
or the common detergent
that is how they do it

in poetry it is not easy
to mix the oily feelings with the watery ones
and it is hard to check
which detergent to use
what is it that is having poetic sense?

between them and you
how do you get well along the lines of poetry?
who is the water and who is the oil?
and who is the detergent among the metaphors
and the similes?

takes time really.
at first we keep on writing these nonsense comparisons
trying to tell which one is best, better and good
which one is worse

but sooner you realize that this has nothing to do with comparisons
it has only something to do with the clicking of the right switch
to give light
to the dark room where we live, to give the sound of the singing bird,
to give that hush, to make us sleep soundly
on a soft pillow, and then dream in another world
where we do not talk but merely observe how the colors float
how they pass us by

and we are nothing but spectators always wanting to have no part
in everything
and that precisely is the light feeling
that makes the click