Freedom

I drive through the streets
still dark from the night
lights shining like
jewels on a strand for
endless miles. The radio
whelps a number too
plaintive to hear. Today
I have ears for nothing.
I walk the downtown streets
like a visitor in the city
I have lived in for a year,
Unfamiliar, disoriented but
oddly alert like a sleepwalker
in a caffeine haze.
The regulars stare at me
as I grab a quick McDonald
bite. Across from my park
bench, the sleeping
tramp gets a trooper's prod.
I sit waiting, watch the sun
gently rising upon the
courthouse building.
Today some names link
theirs to mine in a dense
karmic tangle. Craig,
Steve Dana and Pallavi.
On the eighteenth day of
October they together
set me free..one golden
word is spoken
"Granted"