For Lowell
There are issues which, mentioned and true,
are of this technology’s previous;
of combating freedom’s battles
and of taking off the masks—
tales of the actions taken,
to blot out the blights of sin,
how heroes and the valorous
fought their enemies inside,
of turning boldly with the sunshine
to evil’s battle towards the reality.
And now that battle is renewed:
given beginning and a brand new youth.
We should combat this identical illness
with braveness and resolve,
for our nation is the sum
of the motion of us all.
Would we be traitors to our
bugle, which beckons with its name?
—
Kids used as bait to discount
with their mother and father in deceit;
our bodies mendacity lifeless, static,
shot useless, chilly, on the street.
This has been the nation’s music.
Learn of Adams’s decree:
There’s “Dignity” and “Majesty”
in tea thrown within the sea.
“One thing notable And putting,”
he wrote in his diary.
One couldn’t assist however to see
“Epocha is Historical past.”
They quartered troops amongst them,
amid occasions of bitter peace,
when that bloodbath in Boston,
for a nation, stained a lease.
They gained freedom for his or her individuals
however in fantastic print mentioned: be damned.
To that man who mentioned, of ham, they’d
“rob previous Tony, Doll, and Sam”
the hypocrisy was notable,
and took some years to combat—
these critics of the sheep-stealer,
who in man-stealers delight—
Till these individuals stole away,
and set fireplace to freedom’s mild.
—
These issues ripple and echo,
blaring loudly on repeat
that which might higher a re-
public: from sea to shining sea.
Our nation wanted goal
and it lacked, almighty, God.
He who instructed of tribulations
warned us of the chastening rod.
As the good believer cautioned,
treachery says up when down;
it “scatters complete households”
with out second thought or sound.
“New events educate new duties”;
once more we’ve discovered this to be true,
and the one query lingering
is what are we to do.
Virginia
January 24, 2026
