Franzen Freedom in Free Verse
Patty, you pirouetted freely on the floor
Of a baller gym trying to escape the still-hot embers
Of free love freely robbed from you
Honeybee rapes the flower,
Robs the honeysuckle of that which
Heaven gave, and though depraved
Men who claim your fealty, family
Fails to carry swords for girls
Carries water for criminals
With bigger dicks and wallets
Walter, frozen like a shallow pond
In Iron Ranging winter raging
Through your backwoods blood, the
Booze and smokes of the Bemidji men
Who tie the women down with drink and
Servitude. The weight of constant winter
Silent spring traps you in a world of must
Until you find a free spirit free love freely
Given in sattvic smiles saturated with
Sex and satisfaction. Shiva sweeps in
Swollen roadbeds slippery tar and loosened
Gravel thrown from truckbeds full to
Breaking broken coal soot whiskey
Fly Lalitha, fly love free for though
You came to this overpopulated
Planet poised to choke on smoke
City soaked with human sorrow
You found freedom, love to borrow
Wresting Walter from his chains
Of filial obligation now you’re gone
Children live, triangulated
Joey individuated
Wrapped in teen lust, still a boy
Coupled free of Mom and Dad
Grab that prize! Trash her later
Make connection, take that contract
Find a way to cop free stash and
Money by the hundred thousand
Find the stench of rotting blood
Turns you back, pay ill with good
Rock star Richard
Fluid rake
Will you take
Her mistake
Thrown like waste
In the face
Of the chick
Who would stick
To the pick
Your guitar
Travels far
From the heart
Of your Walt
Though you love him
You betray him
With your radar cock
you slay him
Sets him free
To love and lose
And grieve
Yet another, a girl who might redeem
Brokenness, the wretched weight of empty
Space between the fibers raveling.
Free from guttering smoky flame
Of family’s woven wick, Jessica,
Your mother’s calling,
Calling
Calling
You are my mirror. Cast the light
Where I fail, hebete presence, to shine.
Hurl spears for me. Then salve
The wounds I caused. Put the pieces of Patty
Back together. Walter’s birds, however fragile,
Can not rise or sing with their savior
Limned on a cross with
Anger
Pain
Loss
Betrayal
Richard
Lalitha
Patty
Free to be who we aren’t
Freedom’s never free
For the cost is the loss
Of who we are
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