Poem of the Week

FREEING THE CADUCEUS

Bowed

under a burden,

I heave my computer monitor out

the second story window,

my empty hands completing

the follow through.

The metallic frame penetrates

the glass, tearing the stitching till

it breathes free air, silence broken

by the shattering replacement window.

Gravity’s fingers draw it down,

the jarred impact littering pieces

across the winter grass.

Space

On the oak desk with its ‘no vacancy’ sign turned off,

power chords lie like empty shackles,

fetters devoid of power.

My soul has been emancipated,

no longer a slave to databases,

instant mail and the World Wide Web.

I have wielded my Sting and escaped

the darkness of Sheob’s weavings.

Perhaps these were not fetters after all,

but Caduceus snakes twisted around me,

the winged staff bound,

poison from their fangs tainting,

drinking the “I am” of me,

isolating me in the advocacy

of connecting me to the world.

But I have shed them like skin,

their corpses now below,

freeing the Hermes in me.

Space

Later, on the concrete steps glazed with snow

that lead from the front door to the winding sidewalk,

stretching to roads endless with possibility,

subzero temperatures sting my cheeks,

let me know I am alive.