[Newspoetry] It's hard to let go

[DL Emerick]

It's hard to let go,
it's hard to let go
of all the things you are,
the greatest show on earth,
a spectacle performance,
eerie to all those you know.

It's hard to let go
all those things about you,
assembled and on display,
the favorite books and plays,
the poems bandaging your soul,
the words wrapped around you
mummifying your mortal remains
while you're still in there,
kicking and screaming,
let me out of this box,
I don't want to die,
not sealed away like this.

It's hard to let go
of all little habits,
shaped into routines,
process rites of living,
and face another way of being
yourself truly and not you,
not the one you hold onto.

It's hard to let go
of favored places in sun,
tattered worn chairs
molded to your slouch,
pillows piled on a couch,
clothes too many, too few,
to hide your naked skin
ever wrapped around you.

It's hard to let go,
to say good-bye to things
like rocks and stones,
still objects of art,
hiding places you've known,
places you've found in you,
fixed in immobile frieze.

It's hard to let go
it's hard to let go and go,
it's easier to go on and on,
drifting and dreaming,
entranced at entering bliss,
chug wine and sip my brandy,
artifices unreal, letting go.