Refused to be

An object or a pet

Never a possession

Or an object d'art.

Preferred to be

Solitary human

Alive, alert & free

Able to run from anything

That had a notion

Of confinement or captivity.

All the rich souls

Like to embed you in their portfolios.

Resist the temptation

Call your own shots onto redemption.

You need no empty compliments

Or bejeweled accoutrements.

Ride free in your beauty-

No one owns what cannot be preserved.

Just here today

And tomorrow & the next one

Until the juice runs out

And Jesus claims another.

Empty the vessel

That brought you here.

Become the air

That you breathe.

The great redwood-

Semper virens, lives forever

By taking in new molecules

From the air that surrounds her.

We glow from the exhalations of others

Who surround us and let us choose

Which air we breathe & consume.