Image: (c) Jamie K. Reaser
I don’t want to live in fear –
To give credence to the voices
of other people
that have been circling me
with warnings of
loneliness,
suffering,
poverty,
and annihilation
since the moment
of my conception.
In so many combinations
of words and accents they all say:
“Stay small.”
“Don’t take risks.”
“Never let yourSelf be seen.”
Like cages,
Like ropes,
Their beliefs about the world
entrap and suffocate.
“Life is dangerous,”
say the so-called living.
No more.
No more!
I want to roam and breathe.
I want to dance naked in
a public square
until everyone there
has counted all
of the moles on
my body,
twice.
I want to warble my
True Name
from a branch of
the oldest tree on Earth,
and then I want to ask it
what it has to say
about standing up
straight and tall,
about unabashedly offering its
services to the multiple generations
of frightened humans
who have sat in the
shade it has gifted.
Homo sapiens:
The most self-terrified species.
Ah,
What is this the bold wind
offers?
It is the sound of leaves
rustling in a far off
land.
And in the way that the words
of the wise always out-travel
and out-live their speaker,
I hear the Elder tree say,
“Just keep reaching
for the Light.”
© 2010-2013/Jamie K. Reaser
Published in "Note to Self: Poems for Changing the World from the Inside Out" (www.hiraethpress.com)
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