Maximum

I am for the free time
we have all long been denied,
the names carved in the tree
where we can all decide
where we want to go at night
and who we want to be
during the day.
It is the only way to keep things moving
in this age when every library
is a temple to the incomplete
knowledge of our Midwestern towns.
Free people shouldn’t count
on selling hours of their life
for next to nothing. I don’t care
what that means in future sacrifices
it is time to let our people
have their chance.
No more grounding all this static
at every weekend dance.
The multicolored lights
that hit our retinas
and distill our growing rage
are just the same as all the open air
that weaves between the bars around our cage.
The oceans of dead behind us
in this game of time are watching
and they are screaming out how painful
it’s become watch us make
the same mistakes that they did
when we’ve been given every choice
to do it differently.
I will stand out by that ocean
where the waves cut their names
into the sand before the current
smooths the surface of the coast.
I know what I will value most
in this place where every name
is just a price tag
and the horizon is just a measure
of the maximum.