Sonnet #34
We sought asylum after we were freed. Resettlement and refuge was our hope And dream. We recognized that we had been Excluded from the human race, and yet, We chose to cast our buckets where we were. Our nobleness convinced us that some day We’d reap in joy what we had sown before In blood and tears: and all the while our fears Suggested otherwise; to wit, we had no right To earn by birth what we had been endowed. In retrospect, we should have sought asylum Off these shores. One hundred thirty years Have passed, too many years to resurrect those Pristine hopes and dreams. And now, today, The time has come to seize what we are due. Washington, DC February 1993