Haughty Exercise

In this winter’s unrest,
Where personal peace and affluence
Have traded liberty for regimentation
And a cheap short comfort born in fear,
Let us think and be still.

While many want life
Where none must worry or sacrifice,
Liberty’s cost is higher in estimation;
It has ever been paid for with blood.
Let’s not shrink, and yet still…

If we value it,
Invading others’ we must resist.
It is for freedom we have exoneration
At a price we could never repay.
Let us thank and bear no ill.

For true liberty
Is born within and not created
By religion, pressures, or legislations.
When changes in hearts are not achieved
Then we sink,
And liberty, we kill.