When words have power ---
The Assault on Emma Lazarus and Her Children
How like the wondrous giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
No weeping woman with a torch, my flame
Is the assaultive lightning, and my name
BIRTHER OF EXILES. From my bronze-spiked head
Glows world-wide disdain; my wild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Bring, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” I smile
With violent lips. “Create more tired and poor,
And huddled masses never to breathe free,
The wretched refuse from our teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed away,
I turn my key and lock the golden door!”
~Steve Monhollen, retired First Congregational Minister
He calls it his lament on the passage of the tax bill.
(Shared with his permission)
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