A girl writes poems under curfew light

While a boy buys crypto in plain sight

She needs permission to cross a street

He books a flight with first class seat

One learns silence as survival art

The other live-streams every thought from the heart

They taught me freedom was a birthright badge

But I met a man whose tongue wore a gag

He asked me, Does your country have ghosts?

I said, We name highways after most.

He laughed, said, Ours still walk the fields

You just paved yours in dollar bills.

Why’s the sun set soft in one place

And burn the skin off another face?

Why’s one voice a chorus loud

While another’s smothered in a crowd?

Freedom’s not a border line

It’s a question no map can define

She danced once, behind closed doors

Then ten years passed and she danced no more

He fired words like they were blank rounds

But hers drew blood if spoken aloud

One writes laws in suits and ties

One breaks rocks while the world denies

If breath is free, why’s mine taxed?

If truth is global, why’s hers masked?

How do we cheer a fireworks show

While someone’s child learns to whisper slow?

Why’s the sky look blue for some,

While others pray it won’t become

A drone, a siren, a foreign scream

What’s freedom mean if it’s not a dream?

If borders bend but hearts still cry,

Who gets to live, and who gets….to try?

I lit a candle in a nation free

And watched the wax drip silently

It burned no brighter, no less slow

Than the one she lit six time zones ago