Contributor: Perry Gardbakken

- -
He says he wants to leave
wants to live in space
wants to live completely free
independent
of all this
of all this green
this blue and red and brown.

He says he wants to don a spacesuit
all decked out in red, white and blue.
he wants to stitch it all himself
of things he made himself
without waiting on anyone else
without being dependent

He says he wants to see the stars
while the rest of the world spins on
dark and blind
like crabs in a bucket
except him
all except him

He'll be independent
he'll exist without relying on anything
except himself

(and all the things that others helped him build.)


- - -
Perry saw twenty winters before he left the mountains. He writes in nature, sometimes while sitting in trees.