MOTTOS

Our country has a history
of sacrifice profound,
of war and revolution which
for greater good abound.

And yet we conquered more with words
than with the cannon’s sound.

Our forefathers, with eloquent tongues,
expressed our lofty aim;
two hundred years their words rang out
and glorified our name.

‘Twas metaphor, not bullets,
that secured our country’s fame.

Their adages and mottos
were bywords of their day
which, repeated down the ages,
with ringing truth could sway

the minds of young and old
and hold the conquerors at bay.

“Give me liberty or death!”
was Patrick Henry’s cry.
It gave us courage to break free
from colonialism’s tie.

“Let us have faith that right makes might!"
was Lincoln’s deathless prose
that unified two warring camps
from which a nation rose.

When Harriet Tubman led her people
out of slavery
wth ringing words she affirmed her right
to “death or liberty!"

A woman’s words inspired us
to survive a terrible war.
“You must do the thing you cannot do!"
spoke mighty Eleanor.

Though the cannon’s roar is silenced
and the bombs a fading dream,
the adages of days gone by
still express the American theme:
the welfare of compatriots is,
above the self, supreme.

But now the dream has ended
and reality is cold,
we live by bread and bread alone
and truth is bought and sold,
and the mottos of our forefathers
outdated, drab and old.

The voices of our forebears
called for peace and liberty,
but the motto of the eighties
as everyone can see
is short and sweet and to the point,
two letters that spell “me”.

It’s every person for himself,
divide and conquer now,
it’s one for one and all for none
and Wall Street tells you how.

Our God is now a credit card
and Heaven is a stash,
we kneel beside a gambler's wheel
and pray for cold, hard cash.

Like sheep we huddle by the fence
afaid to stand apart,
we’re lost, alone and frightened
and we don’t know how to start,
we won’t confront a future
that could break the mind and heart.

Oh, where’s a Lincoln or Thoreau,
a Martin Luther King?
Oh, where’s a man or woman
who can make us stand and sing?
Oh, where’s a woman or a man
with words to lead us through
the darkest hours we face
and help us build the world anew?

© Frances Spencer