AMERICA II
AMERICA II
We are young, it is true;
In the long walk of history
Our days were filled with the improbable,
The impossible
The ineffable, the inevitable.
High in ideals, yet blindly stumbling
Towards some unseeable future
That may be a Heaven or Hell
We've seen ourselves as a City on a Hill
The whole world might look to;
A model for the past to pull itself up to;
A dream for those who dare to dream
Of betterment, of rising above
The simpler satisfactions
Their forebears accepted.
Yet in trying to get there
We embraced Manifest Destiny,
Warred against ourselves and many others,
Raised gleaming monuments
Through the sweat of the faceless enslaved.
Then rose above these things,
To save, when it needed it,
The whole of the world from a great spreading darkness
Even while remaining in darkness ourselves.
What can be said of this wild Youth
Come self-announced on history's stage?
What does the Youth want?
What does the Youth say?
Can the Youth live up
To the Promise it claims to bring?
Time will tell,
But Time, for now, holds mute.
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