Common Sense (1776), Addressed to Today's Citizens of America

A revolutionary work of erasure poetry that exposes the contradictions in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense —calling for a new definition of citizenship that embraces all Americans In his famous cry for inhabitants of the thirteen colonies to seek independence from Britain, Thomas Paine claims to call for total freedom and equality, yet his arguments are directed only at white men, excluding women and people of color. Crystal Simone Smith, known for writing poetry about the human condition and social