Stars and Stripes

Although I realize my time to grow has passed
No cheetah's spot could outrun me
A-top pale bloom,
No tip top could ever be reached,
For I am within all in every distance in every place and cannot be breached
But scar my hand and you will see that I bleed
But knife my back and you will see that I scream
But not even by the longest out-stretched idea bent, curled and shaped
Cursed, bruised and connived, there were none that I could forsake
I arose from some fabled turning of time's passage
Foretold and prophesized
I gave birth to freedom as others stood against me laughing
Somehow at first, it was not for every person's asking
But still it overtook the deepest of all the deepest yearnings
And outlasted every gavel's tapping
And there I stood half-staff dressed in only a corsage of stars and belts
Stars and stripes
For poorer things never knew how to be felt
But even in that hour we stood upright
And flinched not our eyes at the dastardly doom
Plot against us in the still of the night
Deep within there was courage in the wake of mourning
It brought us together
And again we remembered our story
Deep within there was strength for all to take of and enjoy
It gave us a voice of thunder
We cried out as one there was freedom still
We unleashed our mercy and bore our unquenchable will
Fraught with justice served and bravery
That forever more we shall be America still