America has never been so seemingly divided since our Civil War.

Thoughts On Arlington
by Michael Romani

With so many jokes out to rewrite history
It really isn't much of a mystery
That our nation barely stands divided
With too many people who have decided

To put aside our American greatness
Instead of emphasizing our fastness
As side by side, we fight for each other
Knowing each American as sister and brother

There is no greater love it is said
And written and plays on in my head
Thinking of those I saw give their all
Unable to stop them from taking that fall

Knowing that they did so in full honor in tact
Knowing that they would do so as a matter of fact
As would I and nearly all to save one another
Knowing each one present as sister and brother

Blood of man spills out part of God's creation
In a silence of slaughtered lamb's breath initiation
Into war's deadly horrors as if in a passage of rite
Souls fade away wounded into the blackness of night

I wonder how many haters and dividers know
That Arlington was once Lee's home or follow
That when the guns fell silent at Appomattox 1865
As men on both sides wept just glad to be alive

The yellow jasmine in full bloom perfumed the air
Yet, Lee's undefended estate fell with anyone to dare
Question the irony of Lee's connection to George Washington
Or that his home would become our great cemetery, Arlington

The eternal flame of freedom glows there now
And injustices are transformed just a little somehow
The dead are honored and buried on this military reservation
Lying there as undivided Americans and heroes for our nation

If such things might then have been overturned
And the bitterest of conflicts have been lessons learned
Might, We the People, find our way back home again
Holding tight to our first principles to always defend

(c) May 27, 2019  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved