Catherine Gonick
That the Past May Enlighten the Present
Let the words written long ago at last
fulfill their promise, may it become
self-evident that all men, all women,
all people, are created, can live, equal
and equally represented
though they now be divided,
can no longer hear one another speak
That the past may enlighten the present,
let those who can, renew the words
written long ago, so they are heard
and spoken, shared, even among people
who feel as divided as Esau from Jacob,
Ishmael from Isaac, who once were red-headed
children too closely related, their half-sister-mothers
Martha and Sally, wife and slave to their father
Jefferson, stealer of birthrights
who nonetheless wrote a promissory note
to the future, declaring that all
his children were created equal, legitimate
and entitled, to life, liberty, the pursuit
of democracy, the shared burdens of hope.
—Submitted on 01/22/2021
Catherine Gonick‘s poems have appeared in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Notre Dame Review, Lightwood, Forge, Sukoon, and other journals, as well as in anthologies including In Plein Air (Poetic License Press, 2017), Grabbed (Beacon Press, 2021), and the forthcoming Dead of Winter (Milk and Cake Press, 2021). She works in the fields of sustainable technology and alternative energy.
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Editor’s Note: The series title A River Sings is borrowed from “On the Pulse of Morning,” the poem read by Maya Angelou at the inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993.
