Unconsummated Ideal

By: Gus Victoria

Words, words, laws, words;

Brick and mortar

Of a shining new edifice,

Home of freedom,

Stained-glass windows of hope

Twist the light of a dream

Casting beautiful hues;

Liberty’s glory,

Democratic masons

Experimenting Enlightened ideals

On deep foundations

Projecting strength;

Serene, sublime, eternal...

And a cemetery behind,

Corpses to the soil

Immigrant blood irrigates

Stunted fruit,

Racial inequity,

God absent?

Man present,

Keeper of his brother’s shackle,

He steals now from others

What was given to him,

He closes the door

That was open for him,

War waged,

Burning unquenched,

Illuminating the palace

Built on freedom,

Conceived in liberty,

Made a lie in the struggle;

Unfinished, unconsummated ideal,

A mirage amid the dust

Of human frailty,

A building tall,

Precious to all,

Not undone,

Never destroyed,

Simply and tragically,

Not finished.

Revolutionary impulses,

Justice seeks its course,

Love its mate,

Peace its place,

Duty binds each generation

To place a new brick,

To bury less,

To shatter the shackles

That enslave us all

To finish together

Our home.