Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

The sun moves through the sky so quickly,
and you sit there and look, while the moon rises swiftly.
But the friend of the Gods, still can't call on the rain.
He cannot do a thing he couldn't even destroy young Cain.
A gun in the hand of a one eyed man,
destroys any dreams of the half minded lamb.
Removing so many of the mice you called men,
destroying the oath made from the princes demand.
Killing the things that desire only life,
to dress the rich men in clothes from the sacrificed.
Why evil men? Do you know what you've lost?
The trust of the people. Has this ever been worth the cost?
Luckily, this is all that's been told, we have to write the story.
We'll write it alone, correctly for us, write it in gold, and write our glory.

Abreast the Thames river strong,
On which boats form a throng
There is a city known to me.  
A city that's yet to be free.

Pulsing streets, and royal treats
Do the senses overwhelm, But I must entreat:
Who is it, in this city, at the helm?

Is it the people, bright and cordial with which the power reigns?
Or is it the river, majestically flowing, because she never wanes?
Is it he who sits in gaudy parliament seat with subsidized meat?
Or is it the crown who owns every meter and every beat of every poet and every street?
The church? Nay, there are no need for tithes, as the tides, the VAT is high.

The dark beauty rumbles through, not standing, she waves goodbye.
She bellows through London, intrinsically free.
Her Majesty seeks her union with the Sea.

Unbridled by pence and pound,
Thames continues down, down, down.
In London, though quite the town, she flows Eastward bound,
For she will not compete for her rightful crown.

There she sat, in the faint yellow light,
in nothing but white lingerie,
a box of cigarettes to keep her company.

There she sits, soaked in smoke, viscous grey,
something to please her schizophrenic perception,
something to unburden her, remind her of her God-given free will,
a term rather easily scribbled on papers.

It was not materialism she sought,
she aspired for something far greater,
she wanted a sense of freedom,
to know what it’s like to be unchained;
even if it lasted mere ticks.

Deep breath, she no longer sits on her bed,
for the first time in her life, she was… free.
Two passers-by glimpsed overhead,
sighingly mumbled, “don’ya ever wish to flee?”

18 | 31 Poems for August 2016

I want soulful conversations filled with happiness, love and laughter.
A little bit of red wine, Sade, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu will do.
Time is wasted so I patiently wait for the clock to get sober eventually.
The sincerity of my words is embedded in the movement of my verbs.
Hope you learn to love your thick thighs and those beautiful brown eyes.
I want to hold you in my arms until you forget what loneliness feels like.
I read your body like the pages and chapters of a novel that I never want to stop reading.
Reading the lines on a woman’s skin is poetry and too many men are illiterate.
So they will never truly understand the fact that liberty begins with literacy.
If you incorporate piano keys into my heartbeat, then I promise that you will fall in love with the melody.
I want soulful conversations filled with happiness, love and laughter.
A little bit of chardonnay, Maxwell, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu will do.
The world is nothing without you, the world is blurry without my muse.
Hope you learn to love your thick thighs and those beautiful brown eyes.
I don’t have much but I have you and with God on my side how can I lose?