Poetry: Anthony Wade

Anthony Wade

Paths To Freedom

Tearful Jewish women in Germany

consigned their children to the trains

that hopefully would transport them

to freedom in another land.

Fearful Muslim women in Afghanistan

passed their babies and toddlers

across razor wire to foreign soldiers,

trusting in the hope of freedom.

Orthodox women in Ukraine

pass their children into the care

of Catholic women in Poland

as the only path to a free future.

Is this the path of reason?

***

 

The Struggle For Freedom

Freedom is vital to the soul,

as vital as breathing to the body,

a struggle that begins as a child

against the tyranny of parents,

then school, then society,

against all that encroaches and

is policed by the many righteous,

or imposed by any tyranny,

benign, or malign.

Freedom is knowing

there is no need to be afraid.

***

 

The Masks Of Freedom

Liberty was once the right to act

without interference by the State,

without prescription of any authority,

to mine one's land for coal to power

the new trains, to quarry the land

for stone for the new roadbed,

to denounce the perceived errors

of others without fear or reprisal.

But what freedoms were there

for those who worked another’s land

for scarce a pittance, and subject

to dispossession on a whim?

What use was liberty if there

were too few potatoes for the pot?

And what use was freedom of speech

to those who could not read or write?

So other rights were called into being,

rights over land, the right to work,

the right to enjoy an education,

and now a freedom from want,

gifts bestowed by the State by

exacting ever-increasing tolls,

and the price given is to be bound

by prescription, curtailed by edict.

***

Bio: Anthony Wade, a Forward Prize nominee, has published in poetry magazines in Ireland, Britain, India and the US (including Setu Bilingual), both in print and online. Irish, he lives by the sea in East Cork and is an active member of the local Writers’ Group. twitter.com@anthonywadepoet

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Setu, May 2022