No Fear

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)