Freedom Takes Another Life Poem by Patti Masterman

Freedom takes another life:
grow up, someone somewhere’s always telling you what to do;
teacher, preacher, parents, coaches, fraternities, policemen

Then suddenly one day, they just pull the tablecloth out
completely; you fall on the floor, amid broken china
you crawl away to cover yourself your bleeding nakedness,

they follow along behind, kicking you for everything you forgot,
beating you in time, to the cadence of all your slovenly forgetting
your clueless indifference, your myopic wanderings;
The whole world judging, abandoning you

you didn't give the world what it needed; what she wanted
what he wanted, you've smashed all their hopes and dreams
you stumbler in the darkness, you purveyor of the unwanted

When they dissembled and hedged
about what they did or didn't desire
you were supposed to condense that sound
into all those people screaming at you from childhood- and act

But you didn't you just stood there-
stood there and stood there, rooting;
pathetically crying, and moaning
that you didn't know what they wanted from you
that you never had gotten it-

Maybe you'll die alone now, and you'll deserve that too
Dead is how they always wanted you; invisibly corrupted
underground, finally quiet, out of the way-

now do you get it?
Maybe you can finally just get with the program now.

Just look at yourself; a rotten mess:
What have you got to say for yourself now?