Free Woman

After Langston Hughes

 

Let America be America again,

Where sheiks turn the firehouse into a temple

 

Where wearing a turban won’t get you shot

And a man slapped to the floor doesn’t get his ribs kicked

 

Let America be America again, 

A science museum turned into a classroom where Chinese artisans craft

 

Where visiting the zoo isn’t for the bear eating the preacher

And that preacher ain’t no geek in the corner wearing a dunce cap

 

Let America be America again,

Where children sleek as rabbits climb the jungle gym

 

Hang upside down on monkey bars,

Walk balanced on top of a fence rail

 

Slight and slim, they run its length unafraid of falling 

As I once did on a fallen oak over a stream

 

Let America be America again,

Where a girl jeered by boys as a slut

 

Claims her place in the world as a woman,

Owns her own body and sex

 

Goes alone in the woods to pick mayflowers,

spring gems hidden in seams of brown leaves

 

Picks silver words in sunlight from wild white pigeons,

And after a firefly flashes, uncovers the tremble of dark

 

 

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2018/03/11/free-woman-by-ingrid-bruck/

 

 

Date Published:  March 11, 2018