Charles Sprague
Freedom
Only our dead will be free
If we lose in our struggle for freedom,
If we fail at the task we must do;
If we shrink from the turmoil of conflict,
Or quit-ere the battle is through…
If we heed not the plight of the vanquished;
If we turn from the brunt of the clash;
If we barter our souls, in our folly,
For the yoke-and the goad-and the lash.
It is we, who will envy the fallen
Should we bow to the tyrant’s decree:
Only our dead will find solace;
And only our dead will be Free!
In bondage, our loved ones will cower;
Abject and despised and depraved:
Our faith and our tenets “Verboten”
Our hopes and our children enslaved!
“Old Glory” will be but a memory
As we mourn by Liberty’s bier;
A once proud and resolute Nation,
Degraded and cringing in fear:
Our Shrines will be crumbled and broken,
And the slaver will scoff at our plea…
Only our dead will be Victors:
And only our dead will be Free!
Adam N.Reiter
Sarbjit S. Mann
President
Sikh Gurdwara of Los Angeles
7640 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA
818-765-9399
Article extracted from this publication >> May 14, 1993
