The Bell Tolls for Truth

Oyez Oyez Oyez

I cry not for coin but for conscience

I strike this bell for the voiceless dead and the living unheard

Let the iron tongue toll through the marrow of this sick republic

A shudder for the children in cages

Their lullaby the clang of bars

Their cradle a chain link womb beneath fluorescent scars

I cry: Who walks free while innocence weeps?

The beast with golden hair

A titan of cruelty swaddled in silk

Whose gospel is profit whose hymn is despair

I have seen his throne of lies

A tower tall not built of stone but shame

He spits upon the rainbow’s arc

He brands the broken curses their name

He lifts the whip of white empire

And drags the weak through mud and barbwire

Where are the friends of the frightened boy

Who trembles at the border gate

Where the hand for the girl in glitter and tears

Whose pronouns are twisted into bait

Cry cry for the friendships denied

For Danny who kissed Michael behind the gym

And wore the bruises home

For Aisha who wrapped her hijab in fear

Yet offered bread to those who cursed her

Cry for the lie of “again”

What greatness lies in gilded hate

In banning brown in mocking frailty

In arming the proud and starving the plate

Is this your “liberty” A flag stitched in fire

No

I cry for real patriots

The ones who march with blistered feet

Who share their roofs with strangers

Who call a trans girl “sister” in the heat

Who know no wall can cage a soul

Who know that love is not elite

Let it be known

My friendship knows no borders

It wears no badge It speaks all tongues

It holds hands over oceans

And sings in kitchens warmed by none but hearts

And if I am cast into silence

Hung by the neck of censorship’s noose

Let this cry be my final spark

There is no nation greater than kindness

There is no law higher than love

So come ye friends the time is ripe

Shake off apathy’s sleepy spell

Raise your voices ring your bells

Let this be our revolution

Friendship in defiance of fear

Truth in defiance of tyrants

And joy a radical act

Oyez Oyez Oyez

The bell tolls not for me alone

But for thee

And all who still believe

That no cry is too small

No friend too strange

No love too wrong to be proclaimed

beneath the sun

Let it ring

Let it burn

Let it be heard

The Bell Tolls for You

This was written for ViMs July Prompt