Are we living in freedom

We had some free afternoons this week so time to write.
Prompt for Poets United: Authentic. When I think about being authentic I think about being truly yourself. I wrote a a few (simple) poems about that. The very first poem I ever wrote in my life was for writers island and was about being yourself. Therefore this time I got stuck on the word freedom lol

Are we living in freedom?

What is freedom
Is it freedom of speech?
Try to throw truth in the arena
Some will let loose the lions
to draw your blood.
The truth is too threatening

for those who like living
in fool’s paradise

Is freedom the absence of enslavement?
Are we not magnetised by money
wanting to become the privileged
who grow opportunities in their garden
with no guarantee to harvest happiness
a few even dance with demons
in places where vultures circle above

A countless crowd is trapped in a web
shackled to sex, alcohol drugs, food
to fill the emptiness inside
big as a barren battlefield
to drown out the world which is
not the wonder we had wished for

So, is there freedom?
Yes, we can find it inside
the twilight of the mind

It’s at the crossroad of
the heart and the soul.
It’s on a golden path
illuminated by virtues
like wisdom and morality

That’s where truth and love resides
That’s where the authentic self was born.
The place where you choose
how to act, not react
Where you wish to serve the world
not wanting the world to serve you
Beauty walks there, into red sunsets
with white wings, among blue poppies
Beauty walks with the colours of freedom