Michael Broder
Freedom Is a Choice
I am with you with him with her
neither do I judge nor condone all deeds
I am with myself and for myself
nor am I sufficient or commensurate to my need
I am with food against hunger but hunger is desire
which engine drives us toward pleasure and the good
I am with a tunic against the burning sun
albeit the sun is heat and light and betimes the eye of God
I am with boots against the rocky path but rock’s the earth
beneath our feet and no way home without a path
I am with blanket against cold but the cold refreshes and quickens me
I am with shelter against rain and light against dark
tho rain is life and I am with the dark when I choose darkness
I am with breath but your choking grip thrills me
I am with truth against lies but tell me you will love me always
I am with beauty but let me grow ugly and old
with so much the greater pleasure to recall my comely youth
I am with wealth as the riches of the earth
for the benefit of livingkind for art for science
I am with power to do well good and right withal
I am with pleasure as a current electric
through mind body and spirit incandescing
I am with gratitude for all kindness bestowed
by god creature land sea or air
I am with air
This poem originally appeared in the Black Earth Institute’s 30 Days Hath September 2016 (Day 20). selected by Patricia Spears Jones.
Michael Broder is the author of the poetry collections Drug and Disease Free (Indolent Books, 2016) and This Life Now (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2014), a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. His poems have appeared most recently in Cimarron Review, 2 Horatio, Word for Word, Right Hand Pointing, and One Sentence Poem. Michael is the founding publisher of Indolent Books, a boutique indie press that focuses on innovative, provocative, and risky work by writers over 50 without a first book, women, people of color, and queer writers. He lives in Brooklyn with Justin, the last of his outside feral feline Mohicans.
Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series to help us process the emerging neofascist autocracy. The series is currently counting down the last five days before Inauguration Day, then the count will resume with poem #1 and keep going until the republic is restored. Or until Greenland conquers us. Whichever comes first. Back soon with info on how to submit.