Note 102... Poem by RIC BASTASA

admit it
it is from pain that you learn much better
not from happiness.

lessons learned from grief
and sorrow and lament
are tattoos
those permanent ones
those that if you want to take it away
it will surely hurt

it hurts it hurts it really hurts
she says, she cries she groans she moans
she beats her head she pulls her hair

afterwards the calm in her comes back
and here she experiences
what bliss is there
permanent too and stable
just like her new tattoos of
roses and thorns and knives and
arrows piercing her heart
and yet when you see it
it is so beautifully done.