Although Defeated, You Did Not Fail

Copyright © 2011 Ernest Bloom.

Although defeated, you did not fail:
You succeeded, and we're all your descendants.
You could not know your first principles were fatally flawed,
your cause unjust. But the legacy you left to us shines
down recurring corridors of forgotten years, in dark
corners and along splitting seams like glittering stars
illuminating our uncertain steps in spurring dreams,
guiding us on, reminding us to dare to reach inside
for selves just a little better than these shabby ones
we routinely wear.

This land is not by far the one you sought, and none
you could recognize. Your eyes might well blur with tears,
and yet I would that you could set aside regret and know,
for all the flaws and moral lapses you'd instantly recognize
and abhor, your children hold none in higher esteem than thee.
Thy memory informs the mystic river from whence the proud
and loyal drink on either shore. For behold! the splintered bones
reknit and forged anew a single nation under God which,
to no small extent because of you and the terrible burdens
which you bore, shall nevermore perish from the Earth.

 
 

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