Liberty’s Tears

Liberty’s Tears

I saw fair Lady Liberty a-bowing of her head.

As silent tears fell to the ground, I listened while she said,

“I fear my life is fading for I feel so very frail.

My cheeks, which once bloomed pink with hope,

Now sullied are, and pale.

Men have trampled down poor Virtue, and Vice reigns in her stead.

And Justice, weak from her long fight, ere long shall too be dead.

“Weep not, Fair Lady!” I cried out, “And bow thy head no more!

For still God-fearing men there be upon this hallowed shore.”

“God-fearing men!  Where have you been, when you were needed so?”

The lady’s vehement retort struck me a mighty blow.

“Where were you when the vilest men abused my sacred name

To give themselves a “right” to kill their own sweet unborn kin?

Why did you let them take our Lord from children’s daily fare

That they might rise up in the world with spirits stripped and bare?

Oh, where have you been, blind Godly men?” and once more she did weep.

Now weeping, too, I answered her, “Lady, we’ve been asleep.

And blind indeed we have been too, to Evil’s ugly face.

We looked the other way while war was waged upon our race.”

— Marqueta Graham

POEM COPYRIGHT ©2016 BY MARQUETA GRAHAM. DO NOT COPY.