Freedom

It really has no thumbnail view;

won’t be found where “me and mine”

live in homogenously gated communities;

bolts unannounced with claustrophobia

when its definition is squeezed

into the privatized closet of self.

Violence and control are temporary.

The forces of the universe can only

be held at bay for so long before

cracks in the dam of possessiveness

begin to leak the world back into balance.

Freedom resides outside the walls,

beyond the cliffs, near the beach,

where the sea of humanity steadily

and gently laps against earth’s shore.

That’s where the hungry are fed,

the naked clothed, the sick healed,

and the dead laid to rest in peace.

It knows no borders, fears no differences,

sleeps with neither medicine nor anxiety;

is possessed by God and possesses not.

Photo by Todd Jenkins

© 2013 Todd Jenkins