IF I COULD ESCAPE

France, if I could escape

on the twisted legacies of your streets

and mingle

with the poets and the artists

just to get away

from this disenfranchising place

hidden away in some sea abbey

I would flood

your streets with my Soul.

I would be an ebb and flow, and

bring my 

uniqueness to your shore, carving

the mountainous rock and reef

with a likeness

of my offerings for your heart.

France, if I could escape

it would be

in a sailboat that I have built

parked in my garage

the planks

have been riveted, and my dreams

are shaped as the planking.

Aged as a fine Wine

your meadows

of art linger like the words

where your fathers shadows

penned the scores

of mans freedoms, and beauty

was availed by the prisoners

whose only art

was the blood of their bodies.

How conceit

is hidden behind a mask

or have we become

so vivid in our weakness?

I want

to escape to your land of liberty

where trust and security darns

the socks

of warmth for all men and races.

Oh France- if I could escape.