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Hear me
read
the poem as
an MP3 file.
Watch me
read
the poem as
an MP4 file.
Video Music: Aria Variata, Variation no. 1.
By J.S. Bach.
Performed by Brendan Kinsella.
Music free to use
at YouTube.
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Independence
Day Poems
Political
Poems
Sonnets
About This
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Poems for
Free
Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon
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Then, there was no right to eat,
nor was health
A right, nor freedom for a slave. Native
Peoples were simply dispossessed, and wealth
Accrued to men only. The fierce and furtive
Cries for love, gay or straight, were smothered.
Non-human animals had no rights, nor children
Left to drunken fathers or brutal mothers.
Oh, yes, that government governed least, but no one
Could foresee the brood of rights sprung
From words that rang out across the western world
That summer day, rights now nearly won,
That long lay fearful in predawn silence curled.
The founders were wise, but to be true to them,
We must apply their words to now, not
then.
Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.
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