Freedom Poem by Starfish ZA

Freedom—
the choice is ours to make,
to decide what is fair,
to search for what is true
when the world keeps pulling us
to one side or the other.

We can stand divided,
holding tightly to the hurt,
or stand together
and choose another way.

Turn hatred into love.
Speak peace instead of war.
Not because the wounds were small,
not because the past should disappear,
but because tomorrow
is still ours to shape.

Freedom, freedom, freedom—
we have a choice.
To live.
To love.
To forgive.

And forgiving
doesn't mean we cared less.
Sometimes it means
we cared enough
to stop carrying the pain.

Freedom—
search our hearts.
Listen closely.

There are whispers inside us
that the noise of the world
cannot silence.

Whispers that begin softly
and rise,
louder and louder,
until they break across the sky
like a clap of thunder.

Stand together.
Stand unified.
Make the change.

Live love
and not hate.

Freedom—
moving on is our choice.

Not forgetting.
Not pretending.
Not turning away
from everything that brought us here.

But taking each other's hands
and walking forward
without dragging yesterday
behind us.

There is a future
waiting beyond the anger.

A place where we can stand in love,
look into another face
without searching for an enemy,
and finally understand
that another person's freedom
does not take away our own.

Burden, burden, burden—
even the heaviest burden
does not have to last forever.

We can put it down.

We can still feel.
Still remember.
Still cherish
what mattered.

And we can choose
what we carry forward.

Freedom, freedom, freedom—
not only a word,
not only a dream,
not only something
others fought for before us.

Freedom is the choice
we make now.

To live.
To love.
To forgive.
To reach across the distance.

Holding hands into the future,
standing together,
standing in love—

united
and free
at last.