None shall ever
taste freedom
so long as some
are enslaved
to opinion
and narrow minds

We live in a world
where to be female
is to be prey
to be different
is to be criminal

And to have a conscience
is to be wrong

But the loudest voices
the brashest thoughts
will be the downfall
of all we once loved

until nation and state
and city and home
are gone
replaced by rage
and hollow words
and an emptiness

that threatens
to swallow us whole ~ Caroline A. Slee