Freedom of Speech
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
There will also be singing.
About the dark times
-Bertolt Brecht
But no human can be illegal
a line we sing
a song I teach
at a standout
in a roundabout
outside the airport
where immigrants are
whisked away to
places unknown
New songs to meet
the moment
and songs that conjure
the persistence and resilience of
past struggles
that brought us closer
to the promise
of democracy
Standing with our neighbors
We shall not be moved
100 singers
from my chorus
in T-shirts red, black, or yellow
tightly knit
onto a No Kings stage
where we encourage
the voices of 125,000
to sing a song of
The First Amendment
No fear gonna silence us
No order gonna shut us up
Walking in the Woods While Male
I walk in a wooded park,
pass a woman
going in the same direction,
and say “Hi!”
Silence
Her eyes focused
Straight ahead
Following the path
around to the other side of a field
I notice her walking across the grass
heading towards the hill before me
the same hill I’m about to climb
In my head
A large majority of women
would rather
meet a bear
in the woods
than
a man
She stops
hesitates for a moment
takes one more step
then stops
turns
and walks back
down the hill
past me
I look at her
jacket hood tight
around her face
contorted into a grimace
and, once again, say, “Hi!”
wishing I had said “sorry”
wishing I was
a bear
Peter Thorlichen’s essays can be found in the Woven Tale Press and The Brussels Review. His memoir, Hope Farm, is forthcoming from Pierian Springs Press, while his poetry has been published in Mobius: The Journal of Social Change and The Mackinaw: a journal of prose poetry and is forthcoming in The Schuylkill Valley Journal, bramble, and 25:05. Peter is a retired educator who lives in the Boston area.
