I Never Counted

I Never Counted

(“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17)

How long will you try to control my trajectory,
keep my like a kite on a line, telling me I cannot fly unless
held back by your length of twine.

How short is your far. How near is your goodbye?
You feign interest in helping, and turn backwards speaking
in unholy tongues
to the same ones and said I was troubled in the head while
handing me your own letter and unforged signature to introduce me
as a capable candidate for any who might inquire.

How long are your lies, and how short is your memory?
How broad are your definitions, and how narrow your expectations?
How long will you torment me, with such a velocity that while you lie to me
the opposite words flee to tidy the mess within moments of breaking
it in pieces? My own words were chards at your feet. My friends’ words
are probably burned while the enemies’ preserved for posterity.

These ten times, and seven years, you reproach and not once
would you allow
a single confrontation with the cows of Bashan.
And finally, I wonder why they call gentleman, one who
takes my precious one, the innocent one, the one with more Grace
than Boldness; when they take her and throw darts at her simple words
and make her the newest target of their quackery.

What I never counted on was freedom for every step I had fallen upon.
What is stranger yet, it seems, they still are redeemed, though my breath
gets caught at the back of my tongue to consider it.

Oh liberty, Oh freedom, misery that dies where sins are crucified,
and life wider than the reaches of noon-day eyes is the constant surprise
for those who do not trip over the Rock of redemption just because they
pursued perfection too impeccably.