Then, There Was No Right to Eat

July 4, 2018

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is politics in honor of Independence Day (USA), which is celebrated today, July 4^th.

I welcome comments on my poems at https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

An Independence Day poem about applying Constitutional principles to modern realities:

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.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/thenth.html. For more poems about politics, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/politicalpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Politics

7/2: In Politics Corruption Is the Norm

7/3: Now, at Last, the Time of Reckoning

7/4: Then, There Was No Right to Eat