Saturday, 20 July 2019

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer: Free-speaking sonnet

Free-speaking sonnet
in which President Trump
makes racist utterances

The hard-fought human right to plain free-speaking
was for dissentient idiots designed
with reason to fear power in humankind,
not power that freely hatred would be preaching.

The incisive tongue that flirts with provocation
is a philosopher’s prerogative
and not that of the clown who thinks he is
above such as the leader of a nation.

And freedom shows a face that is distorted
if freedom says there is free violation
and yet no calling to account ahead.

Free speech includes the weighty obligation
to listen. Views must not be unsupported.
Not all that one might say must needs be said.

To see the original, go to here.

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