A nation bonded beyond its differences
Jeff Mason 06/22/2024
We tossed our flags up for our cause,
and against our brothers fought;
our sisters too were there;
mothers, fathers, sons and daughters
and we feared where this may lead,
our freedom... for a thought?
for civil war had long ago been done,
that cost been paid
in bonds like iron
upon the forge been wrought,
in countless graves,
in still repose their mortal bodies... lifeless laid.
in blood that never need be shed,
in price that stole each sacred soul;
so many of our nation dead
no more to breathe; broken; no longer whole.
And here again, we find ourselves
tested for the mettle of our hearts,
our union bound on brittle ground,
a cask once found
to be unbroken,
feared to shatter from the sound
of mere words that have been spoken.
But in the end, the rift was sealed
our union kept intact
despite the acrid breeze revealed
in fallacy presented as pure fact.
We stayed the course that had been set
by minds of those before our time
this pact we'd made held fast and yet
we'd seen the warning: heed the sign
of storms that break against the will
of people made of more than spirits ill.
No more were we to pay the toll
of those dear soldiers of the past;
the waves once more
were calm upon our shore
because we'd found
our common thread
meant so much more
than fealty to division's bell
that tolled with dread
and tried instead
to shake the center of our steely core. ~
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I certainly hope the lessons from the past will never bring us to a civil war like that one. The key like your poem, is to be civil rather than angry and revengeful
Politically I am at odds with my siblings. But we all have agreed to get along together and keep politics, like religion, from ruining our lives as brothers and sisters.
Ron