~A cento/collage poem After Emma Lazarus, Francis Scott Key, and xenophobes worldwide
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,”
“Go back to where you came from!”
“O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”
mlc2026©️
*The New Colossus
BY EMMA LAZARUS
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
*Homeland Security Investigations “executed a judicially authorized search warrant” as “part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.” at Representative Ilhan Omar’s home.
*The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key
