Draped across the heavens
Indra's net stretches
from infinity to infinity
through infinite dimensions
and for all time.

Woven into the net are jewels
each having infinite facets
when, on inspection,
are seen to reflect
not only the neighboring jewel
but as well the reflection
of the neighbor's neighbor
and so on
such that a gaze into one jewel
reveals a panorama of the universe.

Like a piece of a hologram
like a neural path
like a bit of gossip
like an offspring
a message of identity
bouncing through time and space
each new facet
coloring a cosmic view
with it's own uniqueness
while at the same time
defining all existence.

Last year was your most recent
and last universal rite of passage
after you could drive
after you could vote
you achieved the nadir
of legal sanctimony
laid down in antiquity
by unnamed Indo-European ancestors:
you could legally buy and consume alcohol.

(It's a little known fact
that it's illegal not only
to drive while drunk
but as well
to vote while drunk
avoiding the possibility
of tossing a muddle-headed ballot
toward a labor union
or a socialist).

This year
the rites can end;
each birthday from now on
stands without need
for legal justification.
You may pass safely
from outer child
to inner child
and celebrate this day
for exactly what it is:
the number of full orbits
of the Earth around the Sun
since the day of your birth.

Enjoy your freedom!