Escape to the Earth
by
Nathanael Smith

It may be true, the stars are my company
But the vaccum of space
Sucks the smile from my face
The coldness of empty and the heat of pure fire
Both winning the race,
My heart to deface

The buttercup flower, confined to the meadows 
Growing envious of
The stars high above
Goes seeking for free and a flash of unbound
Not seeing true love
Is not a cage... it's a dove

Enter the void, the price is yourself
Stepping just past
The lines to the last
My every movement is a movement toward down
But you're holding fast
You'll hold to the last

Regressing my state to a place of repose
I pass intelligence
Before I pass genius
Intellectuallism is such a lonely world
The freedom that I wish
Is freedom oblivious

* * *

If the freedom you speak of is attainable, I would have to give up my mind to achieve it. As it is, the only thing I am is my mind. To give up my mind would be to give up, to fade into oblivion.
To die.

Hold on to your innocence, keep what you love and love what you can get. The youngest child who smiles with marrow-deep joy is more to be envied than I.

I learn this slowly, with ever-growing panic: To give into intellectualism will only help you to stare with lifeless eyes and pity everything for being the inferior. To give into emotional intellectualism will only lock you in a cage of narcissism and self-pitying.