Other People's Freedom Poem by David Welch

Autumn though of herself as a kind soul,
and she took great pride in her compassion,
she believed things could be made perfect,
and her voting reflected this fashion.

She was to see that the wealth was shared,
and that people were nice in their words,
since so few out there ever recognized
how what they said could offend and disturb.

If folks would only learn some basic tact
then everything would run more smoothly,
and she was so glad to help elect leaders
who would take a strong stand against ‘hate speech.'

One day she saw on social media
a report about a conspiracy man
who liked to breath fire when he spoke his mind,
so the tech giants all had him banned.

But she didn't think that much about it,
she'd never liked that fellow anyway,
so she shrugged it off as unimportant,
and mindlessly went about her day.

A month later she saw some new footage
of men's right activists under attack,
for trying to change the family courts
they were set upon by hoodlums in black.

But Autumn did not care much for their cause,
opposing women was beyond the pale,
why listen to fools who had never been told
that the future ‘belonged to females? '

A year after that a church made the news
when it refused to marry two men,
the pastor tried to explain his reasons,
but ‘Anti-fascists' just threw rocks at him.

Autumn just shook her head at the scene,
had not the pastor heard of the new laws?
Who was he to claim that he knew the truth?
To exclude folks on the word of his ‘God? '

Three months later, in campaign season,
a brash man roused the crowds with his rants,
said all sorts of things she found horrible,
it was really getting out of hand.

And when the networks block out all his ads,
and refused to cover his rallies,
Autumn felt that peace had been restored,
there were ‘standards' to democracy.

Then a year later a new judge declared
that ‘hateful words' were not protected,
Autumn was glad, progress would be made!
She eagerly waited for what lay ahead…

Over the next two years many people
ran afoul of this new ‘moral code, '
it started with fines, then came prison time,
hundreds, then thousands, to the jails did go.

Autumn started to feel a bit uneasy
at all the chaos that it had caused,
but every change came with some trial,
and those people had broken the laws.

But while talking at a diner on day
Autumn happened to make a remark
that being a woman meant giving life,
that pregnancy could bring joy to the heart.

She didn't know a tranny sat behind her,
a man who pretended he was a girl,
he/she reported Autumn's errant talk,
and down cashing came Autumn's whole world.

She was arrested for assigning gender,
her intentions served as no defense,
saying the womanhood may mean children
was deserving of strict punishment!

Autumn protested, she tried to make clear
that she counted herself among the left,
wasn't left enough to silence the mob,
they wanted scalps and scalps they would get.

Worse still the prisons, now overflowing
with souls convicted of heinous thought crimes,
were not enough, so works camps were opened,
she was sent to slave in a copper mine.

Ten hours a day, just bread and water,
doing labor that made the joints hurt,
no chance for a lawyer, she was now ‘fascist, '
things like justices such ‘kinds' didn't deserve.

It got worse still when the guards noticed her,
decided that they wanted to play,
now instead of hauling ore all the time
she was merely brought aside and raped.

By the time that first awful year was over
three times had poor Autumn miscarried,
between the rough treatment, and not being fed,
she had lost so much weight it was scary.

One morning she went out to the pit's edge,
staring down eight hundred feet below,
with not a single emotion on her face
she stepped forwards and let herself go.

They tossed her body into a mass grave,
acted as if Autumn never were.
She wouldn't defend the freedom of others,
so none were left to stand up for hers.