Without a shield from the cold

Without a promise of what’s to come

Without the Embrace of our loved ones

Without the might of the country

We sit in a valley of ice as Winter unleashes its uncompromising will

Punishing us for daring to fight within its all encompassing grasp  

We have frozen; we have suffered; we have perished in its endless sea of

White and gray that fills our vision and dominates our waking moments

And yet…

Here we are, and here we will remain

For something mightier than nature itself is burrowed in our chest

Something whose power is unrivaled by pain or sorrow or fear

And that warms us even as ice blows around us

We have hope

Hope for a brighter future of unity and freedom from the

Oppressive yoke of those who would see us crushed and broken.

Hope, for a victory over those that send armies of men, who spit fire at us,believing

it will deter us

But what hope have they of fighting the fire that burns within us?

To our chests, we clutch the banner of our defiance

Starry, marking our bond and our resolution to fight and die together

For that which is worth having, will never be taken without pain

Or without anguish or without blood

On the other side of this river that we hold so dear

There lies an obstacle to our path of Independence.

There camps and enemy; one whose heart is not filled with hope, but with

Cruelty and greed as coin spills into their hands each and every time

Our blood is spilled from us.

We have been beaten, frozen, shot, and cornered

But today, we show them the folly of locking blades with a foe

That will not stop breathing until every one of his breaths are in a land

Free of their presence.  

And so here we plant our flag

And so here we rekindle that fiery hope

And so here we cleanse this blight upon our land

As a new dawn rises, we shall smile into its promising gaze.