Merril D. Smith

In scant light, slant light, shadows stroll
above the bones unseen,
remains of scattered, shattered lives,
Glory, Hallelujah, we used to sing.

Was this then, or is this now?
The truth is marching on–
torn, twisted, and trampled
in scant, slant light as shadows stroll,

as masked men menace, muscled marauders
from obscurity troll

in the scant, slant light of spring,
the grass is greening, the days are growing,
the roses blooming,

the shattered bones are speaking,

calling not for “bombs bursting in air,”
but my country, “sweet land of liberty,”
always a vision, yet there it is—listen—

the susurrus of ghost voices
songs from the shadows lift
“we shall overcome,”
march on, march on, march on, march on.

Merril D. Smith is an independent scholar and Pushcart-nominated poet. She writes from southern New Jersey. Her work has been published widely in poetry journals and anthologies. Her full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts (Nightingale & Sparrow Press), was Black Bough Poetry’s December 2022 Book of the Month. Find her at Bluesky: @merrildsmith.bsky.social; Instagram: mdsmithnj; Blog: merrildsmith.org

This poem appeared in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age — Summer 2025, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.