Juneteenth

May you live with ease, may you be happy
May you live with ease, may you be happy

It’s 1865
And you still ain’t free
Cries of sadness
Tears and despondency
And then you hear a letter
A declaration
Landing here in Galveston
A proclamation

Slave stands up and says imagine this
They’ve taken a drastic risk 
Shattered dreams of whips from antagonists
But stay put, fit the norm, and your task is this
You’ve got your freedom but it comes with an asterisk

You need to stay quiet, no violence, and work for wages
Relationship changes from masters and slaves
But it’s slow, in stages

First is the worst 
’Cause you’ve lost your voice
Your culture’s stripped down 
And you’re forced, no choice

Next stage is a range
Both awareness and pain
Awareness brings light to the pains true name
And from the light we start to move to become the same
Equity’s voice is there, but it’s stained and strained

But we move on building movements from door to door
Focused on the greatness the world has in store
We share our dreams and we hope it amounts to this 
The freedom without the weight of the asterisk