Carefree Poem by Michael Shepherd

You don’t hear the word
much these days.

It floated into the mind
this morning in the middle
of a fit of glooms

call it grace if
you believe in grace

carefree
it comes without strings
like an escaping balloon
a blue balloon or
a thinks balloon

no documents to sign
no commitment
no promises, no-one to
forgive, not even
myself, not
even a solemn declaration
about giving up all other

all a bit easy, no wonder
it’s out of fashion

well you know what they
say, yesterday’s naff is
tomorrow’s edgy retro

so what
today I’m carefree

my blue balloon, you can
hardly see it against the
blue sky, looks as if
it wants to join it up there

wanna hold my balloon
before we let it go?