A poem for the inauguration of President Donald Trump

Abe Lincoln once said:

“All the armies of Europe, Asia and African combined…

With Bonaparte for commander

Cannot by force take a drink for the Ohio [River]…”

If we choose to stop them,

This is even truer now than in the pre-war years

When Lincoln said it.

“The danger,” Lincoln said, “If it every reaches us,

Must spring up among us, it cannot come from abroad.

If destruction be our lot, we most ourselves be its author…”

A forewarning of the events that would later shake our nation

In war we ball by different names

Depending on which side of the Mason Dixon Line we live:

The Civil War, The War Between the States,

The War of Northern Aggression, a war we continue to fight

Despite Gen. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House,

Because the issues that gave rise to that war

Continue unresolved, despite all the blood spilt

In places such as Gettysburg and Manassas,

We live as divided now as we ever did,

In a nation populated by people

Who do not hear each other because

We do not listen to what others says,

Our war is no longer a war between north and south,

Or even east or west, but on some ethereal landscape

We cannot see or touch, but only feel,

Though the pain is just as real and so is the bloodshed

This all coming at a time when we see ourselves

As something less than what we really are.

Donald Trump campaigned on the idea of

Making America Great Again

In truth, it has never ceased being great.

We have simply forgotten it,

Losing our vision in the petty squabbles

Unworthy of a great nation,

Passing judgment on people who disagree with us

Based on personal prejudice and ignorance

We ourselves have created,

An exchange of hostilities that might make

Fort Sumter seem tame

Yet filled with fears no more real

Than the ghosts in the closest
and monsters under the bed

We feared as children.

We make them real by own relentless assumptions,

Each degrading remark contributing

To our own downfall, from within, not without.

It is not ISIS or the Russians or even an asteroid from space

We must fear most but our lack of faith

In who we are as a nation

And what we are capable of doing as a people,

Black or white, gay or straight,

Liberal or conservative.

By faith, I do not mean religious faith,

Though it is made up of the same substance,

Out of which all faith is derived.

Mrs. Obama talked about hope and its loss.

Hope is not the answer.

Faith must be.

Father that we as a united people can accomplish anything,

Overcome any barrier, whether it be terroristic theater from without

Or more potent and ultimately deadly threat

Of a divided nation within.

We need to rebuilt the faith that Lincoln help recreate,

A faith that we can learn again with far less bloodshed,

To listen to each other, feel each other’s pain,

Elevate each other so we can see the best of those we opposed

Rather than the worst,

We must have faith that can overcome all those things we fear most,

And then, indeed, like a dreamer waking from some terrible nightmare

We can remember just how great we really are.