Free

Free                                         March 3, 2006

A journey to my youth

Would be a stroll into a time

Many of you youngsters

Would find oppressive,

Or, in fact, preemptive.

A journey to my youth

Would take me back to a place

When trouble didn't really seem

To find me so easily.

Today is such a complex time.

Computers and cell phones

Own this whole wide crazy world.

I've never built up the courage

To ask my elders this,

Of whether they find today

To be more threatening

Than yesterday.

But what I dare not fathom

Is what the future may harbor

In her dark, bleak waters.

Thus, there is the voyage

Back in time.

I'm nearly a quarter century old,

And frankly, that's frightening.

I don't have the warmth

Of a parent's hand anymore

To guide me through troubled waters

When the surf's up and the tide is high.

It's just me now, a free man.

Free to fall in love.

Free to develop a broken heart.

Free to build an empire.

Free to lose all my shares.

Free to be on my own.

Free to die in whatever fashion.

In essence, it's the lack of simplicity

That I miss the most,

And the gift of freedom

That, despite all it entitles me to,

Frightens me to the bone.