Freedom Isn’t Free by Aaron Smith

In my hometown it will cost you
7.98 at Walmart if you want it

in blue with a rifle in the talons
of an eagle, or bannered across

a motorcycle that was Born to Ride.
You can drink freedom for 9.99

in Pigeon Forge or Panama City:
follow the fluorescent swimsuit

covers, beach towels proud
of the south, to the gravel parking

lot off the four-lane for a microwave-
safe mug of freedom, a shot costs

3.99 plus tax. Freedom glitters
and snow-globes, even in summer,

hangs with air-brushed license plates
named Amber and Tiffany, and all

the World’s Greatest Grandmas
and Dads. Freedom may Kneel

 for Jesus and Stand for the Cross,
and ask you to Elect the Lord 

as the Leader of Your Life—
freedom is never free, but you can

buy some and get some half-off.

Aaron Smith is the author of four books with the Pitt Poetry Series: Blue on Blue Ground, Appetite, Primer, and, most recently, The Book of Daniel. He is an associate professor of creative writing at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.