A Morning of Mourning

I am mourning
my liberty,
not simply liberty to live
but liberty
to naively believe this land
 could be kind to me.
I was wrong.
         -
I am mourning
my naivety
I thought that four years of
sheer ignorance 
was enough to prevent another four 
years of  catastrophe, 
I was wrong.
          -
I am mourning who I thought
we were yesterday
I thought that for once, we’d come
 together
to defeat a monster who installs division
 not unity.
I was wrong.
          -
I am mourning
 who we will be tomorrow
when all of this is over
 where we no longer try
to understand each other
 division has torn 
us into ash and cinder
         -
I am mourning America
 what i once hoped we could be
I am mourning the america I once thought to be
 the land of the free.

-Riya M. Cyriac