If I were free

I would study in Greece.

I would paint the world with my fingers,

dwell in the hearts of interested strangers.

If I were free

I’d spend a century

studying philosophy.

I would consider the thoughts of heroes past,

carve my own in stone so it would last.

If I were free

I would study at MIT.

I would learn the science of engineering,

illustrate a model of social steering.

If I were free

I would lay by the sea

and study the sand as it flows through my hands

and remember that we were born of the land.

If I were free

I’d do many things,

But I am not free and instead everyday

I work till exhausted for not enough pay.

I am not free

and will never be.

I am stranded here like the sharecropper

whose living expenses outweigh his copper.

Can anyone see

this deep poverty?

Does anyone care that would possibly share,

break the corporate grip that binds me here?

I am not free

and may never be.

I can only dream of liberty.