Liberty

Lights explode
like flowers—showers
of color
hiding stars
behind a rainstorm of fire.
Heat shatters silence—

it ripples
like stones entering
black water,
consuming
itself at last on the shores
of the breaking day.

This 4th of July 2018 I invite our President and members of Congress, and the justices of the Supreme Court, to actually read and consider the words inscribed on our Statue of Liberty.

The New Colossus

Emma Lazarus, 1849 – 1887

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 

Have a great 4th!