After Baldwin
I crave a secure mooring post
because freedom is too damn unbearable
life defined by emotional attachés
I’m not afraid of losing people
as much, being afraid of not being tied to
someone or an idea even is another thing entirely
the parent-child co-dependency,
lover to therapist-parent,
friend to bank account, like a solid wooden post
dug several feet into subsurface, its surety,
it’s a controlled environment yet I knew
as a child constant flux
traffic of parent’s lovers, tide in tide out
one post to the next freedom is fear is
the horror of loneliness
being out at sea too long without that
sure without that grounded,
but it’s so necessary now
not to play it safe, to let go, to uproot
and burn, to dismantle it all, to not inventing
something because someone says its right
I woke up with my mind
evolution on
slip of mooring line’s knot,
that slow drift from dock
open blue waters
the diamond dance of sunlight
a soft bell will play
a Yes to life
Charles Snyder 