Freedom Strings
By C.L.Haws
For weeks I’d
practice
In the dark of night
Guilty of malpractice
Guilty out of spite
My fingers silently
played
Not daring to make a
sound
One more night I
prayed
The Silencers all
around
Performance day
Not significant now
Once a holiday
With lights as a show
I step into the
square
Where a lone pole
stands
Hurriedly I prepare
Before they bind my hands
Violin in place
I peel note one
Every face
To me spun
I played a song
Forbidden
But how could it be
wrong?
Silencers wanted it
hidden
Notes of stars &
stripes
A banner spangled
white
In past days stripped
From the pole to my
right
People in the square
Open their mouths to
sing
A battle they prepare
Let freedom ring
Though all tongues
Were cut
Sound produced by
lungs
By Silencers can’t be
shut
In time with violin
Wordless voices
chimed
Silencers walked in
Not a voice dimmed
We all were taken
To the square’s other
side
Goodness forsaken
A rope hung with
pride
One by one
Singers fell
Leaving none
But me to tell
