vale America

I confess a truth, 
self-evident 
yet unsaid:

Freedom, 
once unshackled, 
now under siege.

Liberty's torch, 
flickering, 
fighting
the encroaching night.

Its flame, 
a beacon waning, 
as shadows cast their doubt,
on a nation's path, 
where the righteous route is now about.

The air, 
thick with rhetoric, 
and promises unkept,

Where criminals, 
cloaked in charm, 
have silently crept.

For criminals 
should not be rewarded for their crimes,
yet in this election, 
they're pardoned in real-time.

A conceit so bold, 
it shakes the very foundation,
of a land built on dreams, 
now facing abdication.

So let us not forget, 
the cost of freedom, 
and the lessons of the past.

For every mark on the ballot, 
is a stand we take,
for the future we want, 
and the history we make.