Doves Adapted by Author from Painting by Louis IcartDoves Adapted by Author from Painting by Louis Icart Freedom Girl Adapted by Author from Painting by Louis IcartDoves Adapted by Author from Painting by Louis Icart

Freedom on the Half Shell

Doves Adapted by Author from Painting by Louis Icart

In South Louisiana
We eat our oysters raw
Using the half shell as a spoon.

We take our freedom
In the open air
And consider it a boon.

The oyster shell is dirty
-- and clamped shut so tight
It takes a lot of force and skill
-- to open up the shell just right.

The oyster is opened live
-- it struggles against the knife
But when its muscle's severed
-- it gives up its gentle life.

Freed by coercion of its spirit
-- the oyster's body lies
A delicacy to be consumed
-- by the scion of the skies.

Oysters all we human beings
-- confront the coercive will
That would dispatch our spirit
-- leaving US freedom on the half shell.

Doves Adapted by Author from Painting by Louis Icart
This material is COPYRIGHTED (C) 1998 21st Century Education, Inc


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