Our country was once born on virtues like

Bold freedom on pressed parchment paper sheet.

While freedom sweet was absent from plain sight.

These basic paper truths some folk did cheat.


Our bonded brothers rattled raw their chains.

It has been more than two long hundred years

Since women with stitched shut lips cried in vain.

And even now, is err one free from fear?



Today black boys are shot in streets like stray

Small sparrows falling to dust. Working class

Strong women press glass ceilings ev'ry day.

Worn white hoods are not relics of the past.


Our civil rights have had old high and lows.

And still, we have quite a long way to go.