--- Freedom’s Crime ---

By John Herlihy

If freedom be my only crime,

What would be the sentence?

Will the punishment be mine,

If I never show repentance?

True repentance has no need,

To show any kind of false face.

Freedom offers its own creed,

True liberty never to replace.

What is the crime committed,

If I choose to follow my will?

Any wrongdoing never admitted,

If I do follow my instincts still.

I seek to follow my own track,

Every right to speak what I say.

Who are you to hold me back?

No need to take anything away.

Freedom cannot be a crime,

The crime to lock the chains.

A thief robs a freedom mine,

Only defeat and loss remains.

A crime to deny freedom’s rights.

The tree bows to the wind’s force.

Subjugation lies there in its sights,

Only if the tree surrenders of course.

If the bud is not free to bloom,

Then freedom finds no room.

Freedom begins in the mind,

No freedom of any other kind.

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(c) John Herlihy 12 November 2018