Freedom - poem by Michael Rosen

FREEDOM by Michael Rosen

Freedom has no warning lights

when it slips away

it’s doesn’t flash red.

When they start saying you can’t 

speak your mind

and you weren’t doing harm

that’s it again, slipping away

but it’s not flashing red

When they start to talk of how

some people are born bad

that’s freedom slipping away

but it’s not flashing red

When they say you’re the wrong kind of person

to go to school

that’s it, slipping away

but it’s not flashing red.

When they say that you can’t work here

you’ve got the wrong face

sure enough, that’s it, slipping away

and it’s not flashing red.

When they start locking people up

without giving them a fair hearing

there it goes,  slipping away

but it’s not flashing red.

When people start disappearing

and they don’t come back

that really is it, slipping away

but it’s not flashing red.

freedom has no warning lights

when it slips away

it’s doesn’t flash red.