Are we truly free?

Today we celebrate our freedom

Tell us, artefacts in the museum

Tell us, politicians and leaders

They all tell us we’re achievers.

Are we really? Look around!

There’s much to confound

The hungry, sick, and poor!

And does apathy have a cure?

Child labour triumphantly reigns

Bonded labour still pains and chains

Literacy is rampant, education scarce

Words spoken are harsh and coarse.

The unemployed look for some work

Unfulfilled dreams in dull eyes lurk

The child-bride grieves her widowhood

A marriage for dowry comes to no good.

Eve-teasers make her ‘kind’ feel unsafe

They all wonder if they’ll ever be safe!

To this now add the latest Pandemic

Which weighs down many an epidemic!

Are we truly free? Is this freedom?

Is life real or artefacts in a museum?

Wake O wake before it’s too late

Let’s be the change, not blame fate!