Across a clear expansive sky,
a cloud placidly floated by
Serene in spirit, gay in mood,
to and fro the blithe cloud moved.
The sky is mine to roam it said,
unhindered in this world to tread
I choose my path, go where I please,
with peace of mind, for I am free
I travel where my heart takes me,
I live my life in ecstasy.
What matters if when up on high,
I block the sun for some time nigh
To people who are down below,
there need for warmth is hard to know
I have my life, I live for me,
it matters not what others feel.

Then from another part of sky,
a rolling wind came gushing by
It blew and blew in furious gusts
as if in throes of sexual lust
The cloud first trembled then turned pale,
it had no hope to hold the gale
Except as part of territory,
that it refused a part to be.
For in such stormy swamps of space,
it had no grasp, it had no place
To stave off foreign hands unseen,
but still the cloud wanted the means
To live in comfort of the land,
with freedom but without the hand
That gave the cloud the very means,
to live its life with self-esteem.

And so propelled to shores unseen,
it vanished unwept from the scene
To take up residence elsewhere,
to fight a cause that was not there.
A cause its people had to fight,
espoused from numerous foreign sites,
A war fought out in freedoms name,
with people made pawns in the game
To fight a war devoid of aim,
to bear the misery and pain,
Of loss of life and loss of hearth
of broken limb and broken hearts
Of sons buried in nameless graves
of widows cursed to single state
And orphans who will never know,
how a little child should grow.

The peaceniks of the world cried foul,
why should the wind throw out the cloud?
So steadily they pumped in funds
to help the militants buy guns
And trained them in ingenious ways
to fight in darkness and by day
They brought their foreign gods with them, preaching an alien religion
To change there culture and their style,
change their very way of life
In this they succeeded so well,
the people lost their heritage
And picked up styles alien to see,
in their very own territory
In freedoms name they lost you see,
the very thing they yearned to be.

The war dragged on for years and years,
playing on the people’s fears
For freedoms sake the people fought,
egged on by leaders who had thoughts
Of ruling with an iron hand,
the people of this lovely land
That people lived in misery,
the leaders did not wish to see
So they lived on in foreign sand,
and danced to tunes of alien bands
Living in wealth extorted from,
the people they claimed as their own
A people rendered destitute,
by years of war and solitude
Childhood lost, gun culture rife,
could such freedom be worth the price?

For freedom is dear to behold,
it manifests in ways untold
But what it means who can define,
a thought so distinctly sublime?
For who is free and who is not
is philosophically fraught
With answers that are hard to find
for freedom is a state of mind
A chance to live and feel and grow,
to love and cherish and bestow
On generations yet to come,
the gift of certain traditions
That give to each the right to be,
confer on all equality
We’re truly free when once we find,
we’re free in spirit and in mind.