Lincoln

Oh Captain, My Captain!
A memory dead.
A sedative of liberty
Taken by head.
The sweet taste of victory
forever bereft.
A heart now retired
deep in you chest,
sealed, cemented,
somehow alive.
Why else would we struggle;
Why else would we strive
To measure our passions
Against one so grave
And ask anymore
When you already gave
A life?
You haunt us.
So rigid,
Hands no longer grasp.
The United States
Writhes on the grass.
You tower, apocalypse,
But no strength remains,
trussed up by the centuries
that still bear the stain
of blood– life blood.
How would you judge
If you could?
Seated so long,
We paraded before you;
You heard every song.
Would you rise from the throne;
Come down from the mountain;
Bless us,
Or leave us penniless?