our better Angels

 In America the promise of equality

Has shone like a beacon over  a raging sea

An assurance that after the storm

There was safety of welcome shores

In America, the promise of equality

Was never granted in sincerity

But as an illusion amidst a fog

A device of greater necessity

From the few to the many.

In America, the promise of equality

Was a wish before dawn

A prayer unto the bleak darkness

That there could be none worse,

And therefore- our better Angels...

But in America, the promise of equality

Breathed life unto itself

From the possibilities of prayer

And steadfastness of faith, it grew

A precious seed in vagrant strands

The land somehow yielded fruit

Made joy from a bitter whole cloth

Of rags and riches

In America, the promise of equality

Is a fantasy of life before the great leveling

Of every human’s fate; a child

Of a union of hope and change

In America, the promise of equality

Is in the balance, lifted by the wisp

Of unseen wings