Is It?

By Anisa Serrano

--

Is freedom the pledge that was made long ago?

Is it simply an ideal? Or is it a promise that was broken?

Is freedom the feeling of looking out at the expansive ocean, realizing that the world is so big?

Is freedom the savagery that they stripped away cultures from their country, yet historians will call them “heroes”?  

It could be anything! They said, You’re free here!

It’s the act of speaking out, of making a choice, they said. We had this and nobody else did. We thought it made us better. It made us free.

But now, as the days wind down, and as he takes power once again, now, is freedom the act of your home being ripped apart?

            Is it the feeling of watching communities being torn apart by masked mobs?

            Is it the act of waiting for a bomb to drop at any second?

            Is it the anger as people are treated differently from ideas that were never scientifically true?

            Is it the division of society as true colors are revealed?

            Is it the hopelessness that nothing will be the same?

Is freedom the feeling of pretending to be free?

Is it?