Max Reif’s most recent poem to appear here was “You Can’t Force the Life-Force to Pose for a Photo” (August 2018). 

Liberty flows in our blood.
No autocrat can beat us down.

Far from a brutish world we’ve grown.
The memory is in our blood.
We’ve come too far to turn around.

They will not last who lives impound.
Dignity shall rise in flood.
No autocrat can beat us down.

Brave acts of martyrs still resound,
Who perished for the Greater Good.
We’ve come too far to turn around.

The treasure long ago was found.
Inclusiveness is not a mood.
No autocrat can shut it down.

Progressive values will rebound!
Our beating hearts aren’t made of wood!
We’ve come too far to turn around.