unafraid of the dark

i know what i saw

i know what i heard

counting every vote

respecting every word

and you said the country beneath your feet

once held its' head high

and its' air was sweet.

but what impressed me the most

was the story you often told

of the undying ghost.

it kept repeating inside my head:

the tragic bloodshed

of a civil war;

the battlefields and the untimely dead.

the lusty songs as young men went marching past,

proud of their skills,

but fearing that it wouldn't last.

the final exhale of a deserving breath;

a Union asked to choose between life and death

chose the memory and the Revolutionary deed

of a Republic and the ultimate need

to free ALL men and firmly hold

ideals more important than acts of merely accumulating pieces of gold.

where ALL men have an authentic voice

and the will to spontaneously rejoice.

i walked into my home town

and looked around,

seeing children playing in the park,

in each eye a knowing spark

unafraid of the dark.