Limelight

Will someone tell me
Why
If life’s institutions
Indeed our very lives
Can be compressed
To a neat clockwork
That there is
Such a wide divide?

Some get so much and are
Scarce worth their lot
While,
The worthy get the crumbs
That would hardly
Lace their pots

You speak
By the measure of a world
That’s alien to my mind
For I cannot
Confine myself
To smug and pious acres
Worshipping faceless art
And miscellaneous
Jealous Gods

One here for pelf
Another here for reign

I would rather
I followed my vein
Come sunshine
Come pain

Than conform
To your sly measure
And be made a soulless
Error

Persuade me not
To toe
Your narrow, domestic line
I cannot walk in
Your sun
Your stars
Do not shine for me

Give me a little leeway
Let me go a free
Come, bid me
To my limelight
That I may be
Just me