at night there is a candle to light her way and there is a bathroom only three blocks away, Ethan washes car windows on the corner, She’s been living on the streets or in squats for days or for weeks, we stopped to say hello to her puppy and my daughter invited her home that day, so you call this freedom to walk the world on your own time, so this is freedom

Ethan’s now 15 and she’s had four years on her own, an outsider to the schools, the jobs or even welfare, like the gypsies who can’t remember why they’ve been in exile for a thousand years, she too won’t join the rank and file, these are the brave new years of poverty and how we’ve created our fears, so you call this freedom to walk the world on your own time, so this is freedom

maybe she knows what it’s like to believe that you can change your own fate and grow up in your own time, it is better to lose than give in without knowing, so you call this freedom to walk the world on your own time, so this is freedom, is this, is this freedom?