*****

Recorded Reading (3:59):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zq6zd44ce3qjviwr39gt0/Free-Not-Cheap.mp3?rlkey=acv948d6f5c7anrzkynedkbbl&st=ook2ngfb&dl=0

*****

Free Not Cheap

This has been a problem
When I meet and greet:
I’m a little too street
For the elite
And a little too elite for the street

Insufficient militant
For the activists
Don’t fit into
Any boxes
On surveillance lists

I shave my head, though not a nun
Any known religion of
And spend my days,
In lotus posture,
Writing of redeeming love

Between the rich and poor
(Also between the poor and rich),
Encouraging the liberated
Woman be
Less of a bitch

To men, perhaps misplaced, but
Genuine in effort are
(Without each other,
Ladies,
We would not get very far);

Appreciative I am as is
Any staunch conservative
Of value which
All things unique and precious
Truly give

Yet open to communion,
And not patronizingly,
Either, but
As a true equal,
To the less fortunately

Disposed among my brethren
Giving value to
The more heart centered
Understandings
They tend oft’ner to…

It’s easy to discover
Who I’m “for” —
Most everyone! —
Responsible adults
And kids out for a little fun

Things that change
Before our eyes
A single generation in,
Also things which haven’t changed
Since ever earthly time begin

What is a lot more difficult
To find is what I am “against” —
Naught by there be
Which I refuse
To be well influenced

One by one,
I speak in voices
Each consciousness of,
Nor find any object’ionable
When gazed upon with love

None jettisoned from my regard
However hard their stumble
However steep their fall
However dark the inner night
Which then their soul appall

But even these confusions
Somehow fail to well explain
The dedicated
Trouble to which
Some will go to bring me pain

I am the very essence
Of a hanger in a gown —
And here we have,
I think, at last,
To that gritty nit come down:

Safe at lifted noses’ length,
In society we try
With fervor and
With diligence
Unceasingly to classify,

By any necessary means,
All deviance as declasse
From strict
And ugly mandates
Of the fashionable day

If someone comes along
Not only such conventions flout
But by this means becomes
More lovely than
Themselves turned out

And one readily humorous
As well, with something of
Actual substance to say —
The ladies will agglomerate
To put that one away

No use attempting all to please:
I’d never move
A leg or arm
Without digressing to assure
It fit some passing norm

So they may keep
The drawing rooms
Where they encourage
One another to consider
Belly laughter sacriledge

And in the baser hovels
They can also keep their scorn
Of anything
They haven’t known
Since the day that they were born

Artists keep
The jealousy
Which scattered makes our brotherhood,
Owners keep the rabid dogs
Guarding in their neighborhood

Manipulators keep
The carrots they
Prepare to offer me
To be anything but the
Genuine self that I be:

Granddaughter of a dutchess
Disinherited
Fate’s flying
Fickle finger by,
Into indigence led

Now I remain there only by
Th’integrity I stubborn keep —
Unexpected though it be:
I am free
Not cheap.

*****

This poet/editor is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code 72D-31S. It will take about two weeks for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

International donors please contact the poet for special instructions.

Thank you for supporting quality in the fine arts