*****

Recorded Reading (1:31): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cpns6urwy7vusrtnf8j81/One-Carbon-Copy-More.mp3?rlkey=s1vk0liro6w7eyzk5tc6db1ib&dl=0

*****

One Carbon Copy More

You waged a war for freedom?
Brother, sister, good for you!
Whether in the trenches
Or telling truth unto
The men and women write our law
Or yet guiding the people to
Avoid a tyrant’s raging maw,
Preying on many, any few…

Now that you are back at rest
How do you about freedom feel
When it’s put to the acid test
That makes that freedom real?
When someone else’s deep belief
Doth not to your God kneel,
For revelation or relief
In mind altering substance deal,

Or a woman choose to wear
A dress of which you disapprove
An inch or two more skin reveal
Than you think it behoove
A citizen constructive
As here to there she move?
Are willing to live and let live
And by your smiling prove

That freedom really is what you
Have been struggling for
And not gen’ral avoidance of
All you personally abhor
While by your own criterion
All others’ virtue score —
Approving but yourself again,
One carbon copy more?

*****

This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S, or choose to donate by personal check. It will take about two weeks for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

Thank you for supporting quality in the fine arts