let my country awake ____ AKSHR

Let my country awake

 

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,

Let my country awake.

Without thee, what were liberty but the gilded

Shadow of truth?

What were citizenship but a name,

A title without its substance? 

Let my country awake.

Where the mind is led forward by thee, let justice be

Naked before thine eyes and sin naked before the universe. 

Without thee what were virtue but a name,

A mask hiding hearts of greed? 

Let my country awake.

Where the mind is led forward by thee, 

let my country awake.

II

Here was a Whole

 

Let my country awake

I have been waiting for this

waiting for my own country to awake

to bring back the pain of history, the shock of truth

that stunned me as a child in church. 

The statues 

of white men with guns and crowns on their heads. 

The statues 

of black women holding baskets in their hands 

to show how they were used.

 

Let my country awake

and bring back the pain of history, the shock of truth

that stunned me as a child in church. 

The statues

of white men with guns and crowns on their heads. 

The statues

of black women holding baskets 

in their hands to show how they were used.

AKSHR