Poetry

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A FREE SPIRIT

Let me be a free spirit.

Let me lower restraining bars and scale forbidden walls
And wend my own way happily through the stifling maze.
Give me freedom from constraints from those
Who seek to bind, restrict and correct me.

Let me run happily unattended through daisy fields
And wade barefoot in clear, cool streams,
Climb aged and barren apple trees
And hang upside-down from their sagging branches
With no thought of bruises, scars, or reprimands.

Let me remove "No" and "You can't" and "Never"
From my hearing vocabulary.
Unplug my clock and discard my calendar.
Let me rise expectantly with each new unplanned day,
Unfettered by appointments or regimens.
Let me try the unproved, let me attempt the unobtainable.
Let me fail without fear or succeed without conceit.

Let me drink water from a pail and wash in a blue basin.
Let me sit near a wood stove to warm my near-frozen feet.
Serve me cocoa from a chipped mug.
Let me eat raw cookie dough and
Crack hickory nuts on a black flat iron
'Til my bruised thumb screams for relief.

Let me crawl beneath flannel sheets
And hand-tied, patterned quilts In that low-ceilinged country loft
Which overlooked verdant meadows and distant hills.
And in the nearing twilight,
Let me hear only the muted sounds
Of crickets, toads and tree frogs
Strumming together nature's perfect harmony.

Let me be eight years old again.

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