...For Delacroix...
Lo, America!
You are not the proud, idyllic, Goddess from my youth,
you are not the one my elders spoke of, or what the history books taught,
no, you are no longer that idealized version of the Leading Lady Liberty –
charging the field, and fighting tyranny in all her unabashed beauty.
Let it be known, I have wiped the newborn sleep from my eyes
to see so clearly the America crumbling all around me…
I’ve discovered my Freedoms becoming less and less substantial…
These freedoms our Forefathers believed are unalienable rights.
…America, consider this tough love…
You are quickly becoming a hypocrite and a mockery
of what our Fathers had thoughtfully penned,
and although you have made everyone so proud before,
you’re now lazy and complacent from all that glory.
America, I have to ask, have you lost your mind already?
Not even two and a half centuries have passed
and you’ve become so absentminded of your history
that you cannot even recognize your past in a painting.
This deviation of your character – it needs to stop.
We need the old America back – the striking femme Freedom,
fighting for those threatened lost, she’s half nude, but not at all ashamed,
for she is the embodiment of strength, she is the essence of life…
Viva La Liberty … Viva La America …
M. L. Michael
-09-28-10-
For Delacroix
Lo, America!
You are not the proud, idyllic, Goddess from my youth,
you are not the one my elders spoke of, or what the history books taught,
no, you are no longer that idealized version of the Leading Lady Liberty –
charging the field, and fighting tyranny in all her unabashed beauty.
Let it be known, I have wiped the newborn sleep from my eyes
to see so clearly the America crumbling all around me… […]
Every Breath Poetic 