Poem by Dan Stone
I travel light these days.
I’ve gone through
and thrown out
so many things.
So many purges
in so many moves.
If I haven’t worn it
in a year it’s gone.
I’ve shed the frills
the fancy frocks
pared down my look
unloaded this and that
and it’s alright.
Now here I sit.
Nowhere I need to be.
No place I need to go.
Odd as it may seem
to say, right now,
you couldn’t pay
me to go back
to all I had,
or what I did,
to all the shoes
and hats I wore
and all the makeup
on my face
so thick no one
could see my dreams.
No thanks.
I remember what it cost.
What it took to just maintain.
Now I look around.
How free I am
when everything I want
is in or just outside this room.
The me I lost. And found.
Sunshine in a vase.
The moon.
I travel light these days.
I’ve gone through
and thrown out
so many things.
So many purges
in so many moves.
If I haven’t worn it
in a year it’s gone.
I’ve shed the frills
the fancy frocks
pared down my look
unloaded this and that
and it’s alright.
Now here I sit.
Nowhere I need to be.
No place I need to go.
Odd as it may seem
to say, right now,
you couldn’t pay
me to go back
to all I had,
or what I did,
to all the shoes
and hats I wore
and all the makeup
on my face
so thick no one
could see my dreams.
No thanks.
I remember what it cost.
What it took to just maintain.
Now I look around.
How free I am
when everything I want
is in or just outside this room.
The me I lost. And found.
Sunshine in a vase.
The moon.