Can’t get too excited
about the choice between
the fox and the raccoon
to guard the henhouse

And though we well may be distraught
before the litany of fallen freedoms,
truth be told,
we’ve been chained
for as long as we remember

The shackles of any lie
will hold us prisoner.
Most effective are the ones
we never see

The amazing thing
is what unclasps them all —
miraculous, it seems,
when we consider
number and duration

But it’s not a secret,
it’s what we all have heard,
for surely it’s the truth
that makes us free.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 4, 2017