Beside the Golden Door. That’s the title of my latest flash piece published by MoonPark Review. Do you recognize those words? I borrowed them from Emma Lazarus’s poem that appears on the Statue of Liberty. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…...I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
I think a lot about all the people who are personally struggling to breathe free at this very moment in time. Good people, honest people, innocent people. Read my piece at http://moonparkreview.com or below:
Light is the secret to just about everything. Rashid taught me that. He is the best lover I have ever had, but also a good friend and a philosopher and a photographer and a genius. Gosh, have I learned things from that guy. How to make myself look beautiful just by taking a match to a couple of candles. In the mornings, he throws open the curtains and pretends to be Cat Stevens, although he only heard “Morning Has Broken” after he came to this country. He talks about daybreak back in his homeland, how it twists your heart with its beauty, how the turquoise stones glitter, how the call to prayer marks the hours, how the sun moves behind the minarets. He ran from darkness, I know that. He was never in prison, neither there nor here, but now he fears that someone will shut a window or a door. Throw him into a place without light, even though he is here legally, even though he has a green card, a blue card, a purple card, a rainbow in his pocket, even though there is a lamp in his heart.
Gabriella Brand 
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