Freedom

Freedom

Freedom isn't free

If we impose statehood
Confer status on it
Like kingdom.

Simply free to be
Itself, or else
Non sequitur.

Idolize it can it label it
It's lost

Demarcating it's borders
Is unacceptable encroachment
it won't accept
Eminent domain.

Freedom freed from conceptualization
Is it possible?

I glance through pages
Of history

I see soldiers dying
Knees buckling only after
Cannons opened fire
Under orders of  Colonel Dyer

I see a mythical hero, barely reached manhood, embrace death
With implacable valour,
at the hands of his uncles...
Great Mahabharata, war between cousins, blood brothers.
He was free to run away but  entered enchanted sphere
of  personal freedom
circling death...

I see a blind woman freed of her fear
Of lacking sight
Creating braille
Gifting freedom
To the blind

I see a saint from Yugoslavia
Free from needing
Security,
Of comforting priveleges
Freeing the power
Of her blazing love
Half a world away.

I see her sister soul
A foil to her purity
But not in shame
A soul searching
Princess
Who burnt her bridges
Returning staid badges
Of honor
Her claim to fame
Winning simple hearts
With simplicity

The free man
walks easy
Leaning on none
To direct the path.

But eyes and ears open
He clues in for himself.

Once seen
With
The eyes
Of understanding
Vision of perfection
Processing
Performance
Eschewing reverence
And response.
Adulation
Or
Shame.

Freedom,
The last resort
Of the brave
The
Ultimate
Response
to
Responsibility.

All rights reserved
(c) Amrita Valan 2014