Who Rises To Greatness? Poem by Omar Osman Jabak

Since time immemorial, since life flourished,
People have craved for pride and freedom,
They fought powerful tyrants and triumphed,
They made sacrifices and rose to stardom.
Unjust has been the cause of cruel dictators,
Whose hands are stained with innocent blood,
Their courts are infested with countless traitors.
They treat their fellow subjects like filthy mud.
They refuse to see them as their human fellows.
They see them as pliable objects with no minds,
They stop to see their problems or their sorrows.
They aim to drive 'No' out of their minds.
'No' sinks deep, though not too low,
It bides its time to sprout and glow.
When pressure piles up beyond measure,
Even a worm may turn against its oppressor.
When this prevails, who is a freedom fan?
Is it the mighty tyrant or the common man?
Who rises to fame and carries the day?
Who loses their lives to have their say?
Only free men DO without fear or favor,
Only free men get wiser, and braver.