Freedom

"Freedom is the name of virtue: Slavery, of vice... None is a slave whose acts are free." -Epictetus

When did I become Freedom’s prisoner?

Mixing uppers with downers are we

Bound to happenstance

In chains or free?

I wrestle with

Should I want medium mid

A straight line

A coasting grid

The ache I know

My future would be

If living flat

Content supposedly

I question if being free of

The cortisol spikes

And sleepless nights

Would set me free?

Or are they side effect

Of my being free?

Is this independence

Is this liberty?

Is the price of freedom

A necessary neglecting

Sacrificing biological clocks

For ambitious needs

I look at what I’ve done

And what I’ve achieved

Though alone

This is where I chose to be

The hours nights years

I cashed in to flee

To where I am now

To set myself free

Freedom

I thought I already paid your price

But it seems

I must pay it twice

Freedom

You come with chains

Instead of my ankles

Unending hunger pangs

Being free of

Is different from

Being free

A lifelong negotiation

For the bounty on my head

And this bounty

I continue to pay

And I choose willingly

The stress Freedom demands

To live a life freely

Perhaps Freedom

Is choosing

Of what to be enslaved

Choosing what

Hunger pangs craved

For in my desire to be free

Originates desire

Originates ambition

I’m imprisoned to thee

But although ankles chained

My precious wings are free