Poem#24 (4/24/2015) Free Poem (From 30 Poems in Thirty Days)

this poem would like to be about something

other than poetry or why I write

it wants to be beautiful shiny to take you

somewhere you discover something so

beautiful you remember it

but this poem is already about this poem

which wants to be as free as I want you to be

this poem is off the reservation like I want to be

this poem does not recognize boundaries

it will go where it wants to and be all it can

it wants to shape itself and be what it

is in all its glory I want that too for

the poem for you or me so I have

let the poem be itself knowing it is as

close to perfect in itself as anything can be

so it is living in the now unencumbered by

its history my tendencies or your expectations

running on clean asphalt breathing deeply

smelling pine and eucalyptus reminding

me of walking to school though a meadow

that is paved over now but the poem remembers

the tall grass the wild fruit and the endless sky

of younger days before the lights came on

& I found less reasons to smile became serious

about things and let go of things to carry other

things the poem remembers cute boys in the

fourth grade with liquid brown eyes crooked smiles

and valentine cards it remembers light coming

though the skylight making patterns on the comforter

it remembers the cloud shapes and when I learned

to read them this poem remembers what you have

tucked into the drawer of your real life to live

the life you have it knows you dream of running away

to your real self it wants you to it says you should leave

today it does not want you to take the things

that tie you to the ground make you cry or feel afraid

just your joy it wants you to play to remember to be

the poem is over gone maybe to return probably not

that happens sometimes when you get the courage

to run away when you get the courage to be free

you never go back to the way it used to be