Golden we were in the Moment of Conception
Title is from American Poet Deborah Landau, from “Soft Targets”
“A Republic, madam”, he said, “If you can keep it . . .”
And America sang with open mouths
Their chordant melodies of varied carols
An anthem harmony transcending all details
Forging a nation of ideals.
A Grand Republic of common humanity
Bound only by shared goals:
Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness
Imagined it would be free, virtuous
Reach across the divide
Compete to perfection
in brotherly affection
foreswear all distinctions of past
Treasure, blood, skin, thought or faith.
When nothing is meaningful
Everything, Everyone, is meaningless
A price too dear to bear
The fear of which impelled some urgencies
Defines an other to find value in ourselves
Licences us to vilify as anchor to our signalled virtue
Seduces us to hostility as proof to our being, human.
A nation, once defined and bound
only by ideals
now unbinds, divided only by ideals.