My Nearest Kinsman

I've got a gypsy soul wedded to a middle class existence

I'm a nomad at heart but engage in no outward resistance 

To the livery and  ornamentation of ostentatious affluence

That surrounds me in an unrelenting and uneasy coexistence

I’m a wanderer in a white shirt and three piece suit 

I’m a rambler who gave in to the businessman’s pursuit

Who accepts security but feels the pain of surrender acute

Because my soul’s argument I’m not able to refute

I’m a bohemian whose roots I’ve planted in convention

I’m an insecure dilettante who lacks conviction

To live according to my temperament without restriction

Because to previous commitments it would be dereliction

So I write poetry on a Mac, outrageous rebel that I am

And change job or location every five years, if I can

And read prodigiously from the classics, a true contrarian

And fancy the gypsy and bohemian my nearest kinsman

July 2016