I Will Never Know.
The night-time has always elicited my mind's teeming thoughts.
I wonder; allowing the opinions I year to share with others become vocal.
I wonder what my life would be like if I was an immigrant;
had I trusted Lady Liberty’s engraven pleas.
I wonder what desperation would be evoked knowing that groceries
are a luxury my family cannot afford,
that the laughter that once filled my school has been replaced with a harrowing silence,
that my country has become enveloped in an inexorable danger.
I wonder what horror would encompass me knowing that my family and I
may not survive to know another home.
I wonder what tribulation would arise knowing that in risking my life
to reach a nation I ache and yearn for,
I am branded as an invader.
I wonder how their anguish and global toils have not yet been loud enough
to silence the labels, the abuse, the persecution.
I wonder how such a significant part of my identity could view people
seeking protection and opportunity as inhuman.
I wonder how the Land of Liberty could send immigrants a message
as blatantly cruel as a wall during an era that celebrates a synonymous message,
the Berlin Wall, being torn down.
I wonder how my country, a country I love,
could neglect the principles on which it was founded
just 243 years after its immigrant forefathers fought and laid down their lives
for the freedom of all.
I wonder.
I wonder but will never know.
Comments
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Annette M Velasquez
Beautifully written, the sentiment, message and poetics... In the first stanza, I believe you meant to write " yearn" not year... probably a typo. Overall, the poem is powerful! Check out my " Woman at Ellis Island" " Moving Day" and Nature Borders" poems on the same subject.