In acknowledgement of our present-day Republicans, who seem to constitute the majority of American citizens protesting government attempts to find temporary housing for the thousands of migrant children from Central America and who very definitely have embraced historical revisionism to further their questionable positions, I attempt my own bit of revisionism in this poem.
My apologies–as well as thanks–to Emma Lazarus, whose poem, The New Colossus (1883), is my inspiration. Unfortunately, her poem, which was engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the Statue of Liberty in 1903, seems not to have managed still to inspire all Americans as once it did.
The Colossus of 2014
Unlike our be-robed Liberty
that gift from France to New York City
honoring our youthful generosity
in opening to the homeless
the poor
a golden door,
Today’s well regulated Militia
offers threats instead
no beacon-hand to light the way
they scream go home
die you may
children of an alien land
they don’t care to understand;
they don’t care to understand;
Don’t breathe their air
it isn’t free
to them you are not refugees
you want their stuff
they have no room
begone with you
even if it be your doom.
to them you are not refugees
you want their stuff
they have no room
begone with you
even if it be your doom.
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| Chris Davis and “Patriots” at the Border, Facebook Photo |
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| No Illeagles, Shelter Facility, Westminster, MD, no photo source found |
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| Somos Familia, Honduran Families with Border Patrol, TX, photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez, Austin |
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| Tenemos Miedo, Children from Honduras and El Salvador, Texas Border, photo by Eric Gay, AP |
I like this poem Tyko, thanks for sharing.