Free Time - Michael Penn

I won’t ever get used to this

A blank spot

temptations

do resist.

The other shoe will drop

just an aftershock

Nice hat;

you look like a referee

Nice watch;

but why are you timing me?

Its spring has come unwound

I was not out of bounds

This is not out

I drew that line

when I was handed free time.

Bells clang

I guess it’s a holiday

Did that rhyme?

Shit!

I’m a poet now.

So give me stuff for free

and if I do somehow

into the soft whites

of beautiful lies

stare down

stare

I don’t apologize

I’ve never been the kind

to close an open mind

so leave behind all that extra free time.

Picked a lock and hopped some fences

that won’t do Burning these = a bad example

finding out = a Roman candle

If I’m pale, it doesn’t mean something’s wrong

If I’m blue, I just held my breath too long

So if you wouldn’t mind

just do the deal and I’ll be real sublime

when I get all your free time.