NaPM April 25, 2017

[dukealien]

For Father-Love


Who were the rivals in
the War Between the States
(or, as they call it northerly,
the Civil War)?
Grant and Lee?
Jeff Davis and Abe Lincoln?
Hardly.  Rivalry demands
two (or more) contenders
vying for the self-same prize -
one woman’s hand, some trophy
of the Final Two, or Five,
or Twenty, but
one trophy.

Grant-Lee, Davis-Lincoln ~
never rivalries although one could not win
without the other losing.
Union-separation for the presidents
though mutually incompatible
are not identical, nor are
forcing submission and
resisting it.

Ultimately North and South
vied for one prize quite openly:
a solemn nod of pleased approval from
their father in Elysium,
George Washington.
North named its capital for him;
South pictured him upon its seal.
Did Washington, they had to know
intend his founding to include
states’ rights (including slavery)
or national conformity unchecked?

The sword decided;
from two hearts, divided
one emerged.  And though one rival won
and handed back their father’s choosing sword
to Washington,
as often when a rivalry’s decided
all were changed.