Portent of a Coming Colossus

There are always those who seek to deny the hope of Emma Lazarus’s 1883 poem “The New Colossus” inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.

————

The Good Ol’ Days were always worse;

with rare exception, more adverse

than times we find we live in now,

which probably are worse, somehow,

than what the future has in store.

We’re never sure, we might deplore

a moment, day, or many years

if terror tears us with its fears

as pogrom, slaughter, massacre,

witch hunts or slavery occur

to satisfy what lies inside—

the evil thoughts we’re fain to hide.

Pretending all we do is right,

our sanctity deserves full fight

to keep abhorrent hordes at bay:

all those who threaten right-of-way

to build the future we deserve,

the one which they are here to serve—

the multitudes, who, in our past,

have tried to move to first from last,

but failure always proved them wrong

so they remain a wicked throng;

detested, filthy huddled masses,

wretched refuse, homeless classes,

tired, poor, and tempest-tossed—

they blame us for what they have lost!

Their olden days have come and passed.

Let golden days be ours, at last!

By Ken Gosse

From: United States

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