Heidi StephensonI have a Dream
Animal Rights Poetry By Heidi Stephenson From All-Creatures.org

Poems of compassion dedicated to the non-human animals who share this planet with us and the people who fight for them.

I have a Dream
By Heidi Stephenson

"Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24 RSV)

Let freedom ring!
Let freedom ring!
Let freedom ring!

From every
mountainside,
let freedom ring!

Justice is bankrupt.
There is withering
injustice.

Dark chains of
fatal
discrimination.

Desolate,
crippled,
battered by persecution.

Victim of
unspeakable
horrors.

Shameful condition!
Physical violence.
Red hills.

Sisters and brothers
made low.
Slaves.

An exile
in his own land.
Seared in the flames!

The tranquilizing drug
of gradualism.
Promises, promises, promises.

Now is the time to make real.
End their captivity!
Rise! Rise up!

Freedom.
Today.
Now.

Protest
with soul force,
fierce urgency.

Work together,
struggle together.
Revolt!

This sacred obligation!
We cannot walk alone.
All God's children.

The unalienable
rights of Life!
Liberty.

Freedom.
Security.
Equality.

We must not be guilty
of wrongful deeds.
All are created equal.

Shake the foundations,
until justice emerges.
Until the bright day.

Be hope to millions.
Rightful.
A beacon of light.

Not an end,
but a beginning.
The sunlit path.

I have a dream
I have a dream
I have a dream

I have a dream
today, my friends:
The brotherhood.

We will not be satisfied,
until justice rolls down
like waters.

All flesh shall see it.
All flesh shall see it
All flesh shall see it together.

Free!
Free at last!
Free at last!


Based on Martin Luther King Jr's famous liberation speech, using his own shards of light.

İHeidi Stephenson, January 2018


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