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Land and People

Pain is like this land
My people
Too great to bear
Heavy with war and
Warning we would not heed
These streets are red
But we have nothing white to wear
We never were born with an instinct
To take off our country
Toss it somehow onto a heap
Ready to be burned with flags and
The banned books of poets
Remember there is fire beneath ash
And wind to make strong the flame once more.

© Melissa Fry Beasley