Independence

by Margery Parsons / June 7th, 2026

What does independence mean?
Of all species, humans have the longest dependency.
Shrews become independent weeks after they’re born
as do mice and hamsters,
leave their nests or burrows, strike out on their own.
Many humans, especially in rich countries
are well into their twenties
before they leave home, become
even nominally “independent”
with actual responsibilities.
But what does independence mean
in a world where the system, the government
controls all the real decisions that direct our lives?
When we have to sell ourselves to an employer
or two or three just to survive?
When our future and that of the earth we live on
can be wiped out
by war or pollution,
empires competing to be number one?
And what does independence mean
when we are so connected
to every other living thing─
without bees and hummingbirds and butterflies
pollinating plants and flowers
there would be no food for any creatures.
When one species dies
multitudes face erasure.
Then what does independence mean
when it is sold to us as a commodity?
When in the name of “the right to be free”
people are slaughtered in and by this nation?
What does “Independence” mean
when the hallowed Declaration
treats women and slaves as less than human
and was written in the blood
of indigenous people whose land was stolen?
“Independence,” individualism
are vicious illusions,
blind us to all we have in common
and our need to come together to win
a world fit for humans and all living beings.

Margery Parsons is a poet and advocate for a radically different and better world. She lives in Chicago and in addition to poetry loves music and film. Her poems have been published in Rag Blog, Poetry Pacific, Calliope, New Verse News, OccuPoetry, Rise Up Review, Haiku Universe, Madness Muse Press and Illinois Poetry Society, with a forthcoming poem in Plate of Pandemic. Read other articles by Margery.

This article was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2026 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.