POLITICAL Poetry: INDEPENDENCE DAY 2024, by Robin Dake

I was born under a fluttering flag,
Raised in the symphony of patriotism.
Honor and blind loyalty were served at breakfast.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”

In time, my suffragette great-grandmother whispered in my ear:
We can be more.
So I shrugged off the good-girl cloak,
Took to the streets,
Asked questions and
Let my pen loose.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of
grievances.”

I listened to the elders,
Learned from those who marched before,
Used my privilege to teach others,
Raised my voice and my daughters
To be loud and righteous.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—

And on this day,
This star-spangled day of celebration
This rockets red glare day,
This glorious gaslighting day,

I long for what I thought my country could be.
Weep at backward steps,
Rage as men with twisted smiles and hearts of greed,
March over the graves of those who gathered

In Philadelphia
In Seneca Falls
In Selma
In Stonewall.

Now let us begin.
Now let us re-dedicate ourselves to the long and bitter,
but beautiful, struggle for a new world.”

Now the roaring in my head quiets
And I sit waiting.
Waiting to hear
The murmurs of Great Grandmother
Of Ruth, of Harriett, of Rosa.
I wait with a pounding heart and a sad soul,
Wait to know how to fight the next fight.

With fear for our democracy, I dissent.

R.T. Dake

With gratitude to my co-authors:
Thomas Jefferson,
James Madison, Langston Hughes,
Martin Luther King Jr,
and Sonia Sotomayor