Independence Day

17 Jan Independence Day

I am offering my poem as my way of confronting the terrible situation in which I find myself. I am 55 year old Australian woman and my partner, who is American, is 68. I recently spent a year living with her in the US on an extended tourist visa but have had to return home because the US does not recognise same sex relationships for the purpose of immigration sponsorship. Even if we were to marry under the new Californian laws it would make no difference as Immigration is Federal and above State law. At our ages, the separation is all the more heartbreaking as time is not on our side, so poetry is a way I can express some of the pain I feel about being separated from her and educate others to the injustices of this system.

Independence Day
by Noni Daniell

Independence Day…
Citizens celebrate
Freedom for all
Flag flying to demonstrate
Equal rights
Speakers pontificate
Gay, straight or bi
CA Lawyers adjudicate

Marriage for all
Get the certificate!

But wait…just wait

Bi-national couples
We’re still invisible
Same sex lovers
We are divisible
Federal immigration says
If nationality’s derivable
From another country
It’s quite decisionable
To keep us apart
Or make us imprisonable!
The crime is love…only love

So when you cheer tonight
Red rockets flying
Consider fellow Americans
Aching, crying
Clandestine secret lives
Scared and lying
Or leaving their own country
Hurting, sighing
Seeking just the freedom
They’re no longer buying

On Independence Day