Dear Lady Liberty,

We are afraid.

It’s been 200 years

of a country build on the tears

of people who get footnotes 

in our history books

at best

and at worst persecuted 

and then silenced

by Uncle Sam’s wrinkled hands

It’s been 200 years 

of two steps forward,

three steps back

our eyes are facing ahead

but our path is backwards

And our youngest people are shouting

but those in charge turn off 

their hearing aids.

Dear Lady Liberty,

We are afraid.

Our national anthem

is now just a minute and thirty-five seconds

of gunfire

with a melody of the screams and cries 

of mothers

wondering which lifeless body

is their child’s

while politicians place their hands over their hearts

and shed unfeeling tears

The home of the brave

where the brave are the children

who go to school

and practice

sitting under their desks

instead of in them.

Dear Lady Liberty,

We are afraid.

But your statue faces away from us

You can’t bear to witness

the systematic destruction

of the greatest country in the world

of the land of the free

Where no one is free.

The country where we get thoughts and prayers

instead of protection and action

Where tradition and the opinions of the few

matter more than the safety

of the many

Where ignorance is a disease

running rampant in an inexorable

epidemic

Where no one is safe and no one is free

and the children are the only ones who are 

brave

The country where we have to be afraid.

So I know why you,

our gorgeous symbol of freedom

of peace

of Liberty

I know why you have to look away

I know that you

are also

afraid.