POETRY BY KAILEY YBARRA

The Facts Freedom

The Brave Men And Women

that once died for our ability to vote

now vote for our death,

our persecution.

The Same Men and Women

that shed their blood for our lives

now living to cut us

deep enough to bleed,

and The Men and Women

that once pointed their guns at the enemy

so that we wouldn't have to

are now turning their guns onto us

because they cannot agree on who friend

and who is foe,

and The Men and Women

who held these guns

are too focused on each other

to notice the guns falling into the hands

that are soaked in the blood of our children,

and The Men and Women

that we prayed would return to their families

are now turning our families against us,

and our families that pled for our lives

are now pleading that we stop living

the way we do,

and The Men and Women

that once saved us from a government

ruled by corruption

now step on our throats

with their shiny loafers

that are polished with the spit of the povered

and their uniforms

that are stripped of any individuality,

and the individuality

that was once praised for unifying our nation

is now what they say

divides us.

And Their eyes

that once opened to guide us to our freedom

now watch as we fall off the beaten path,

and Their voices

that once rose above the screams of terror

have now gone quiet

not because They cannot speak,

but because They simply choose not to.

And They choose not to

as the rest of us fight to be saved

from the ones

we once called our saviors,

And They choose not to

as the axes

we once used to cut down the bars of our prison

are melted down

and forged into a new jail cell,

a new cage,

a new death sentence,

because life liberty and the pursuit of happiness

is only for those who

fit

and follow,

because we love too much,

too different

from what they’ve told us we can,

and we choose to make our own identities

rather than follow the identities

of what they think

men

and women

and people

are supposed to be,

the identities of these

men and women

who only cared for our lives

when our lives looked the way

they believed their god intended.

If this is freedom

then maybe we were never supposed to comprehend freedom

because freedom is nothing more

than the free will to do harm.

If this is what freedom looks like

then maybe we never understood freedom after all.

If this is what their freedom does to our people

then maybe freedom is the enemy.

If this was all we were meant to be,

then maybe we were never meant to be more

than the simple organisms we once started as,

the ones who did not discriminate

because discrimination was too high of a thought process above

instinct,

above eat,

live,

then die.

If this is what we are supposed to be,

if this is who we are supposed to be

then maybe we were never meant to understand

the pain we would cause

and the pain we would endure.

Maybe if we had not evolved to make choices,

to have Freedom,

we would not have evolved to do harm

because doing harm is always a choice,

and it is a choice

too many of us have made,

a Freedom,

a power,

too many of us have abused

So here are the facts of life

in this so called freedom:

predators eat prey,

prey live in fear,

and humans are cruel.

Everyone who says this is freedom is a liar,

but maybe the only lie

is the one we told to ourselves,

the lie that True Freedom

was ever a possibility.