*** Lady Liberty Speaks ***

Give me your tired

not the kind that sleeps,

the kind that’s been carrying a country on its back.

___

Give me your poor,

not because they failed,

but because the system ate first.

___

Give me your huddled masses

pressed together by fear,

by rent, by raids, by the sound of boots in the hallway.

___

Send me the undocumented dreamers,

the fired for telling the truth,

the mothers who packed their children in prayers,

the workers who were told to be grateful for crumbs.

___

Send me the storm-tossed,

the flood-soaked,

the wildfire-singed,

the ones climate and capitalism both tried to forget.

___

I will not meet them with fences.

I will not greet them with guns.

I will lift a light so fierce

it burns through every law written to decide

who gets to be human.

___

This is still a door.

This is still a promise.

And as long as even one of us is breathing,

it will never belong to fear…

©️MustafaSantiagoAli