Fighting Shadows

“...A house divided against itself cannot stand”A.Lincoln

Between the darkness and the dawn

whirling dervish devils dance--

hear them cackle as they weave

 anxiety and fear to knots. There’s no reprieve

 from battles fought, even as the night moves on...

The raging storm was finally quelled

and in your words, a soothing balm

to calm a nation torn apart;

to reunite. The words instilled

a sense of hope with so much lost

at such high cost.  Not all agreed; small

seed of discontent became dissent

and in a rage a shot rang out…

The gift of eloquence is rare;

commanding presence rarer still.

yet in the shadow that you cast

two great armies had amassed…

So many people hated you for

changing lives accustomed to; yet when

surrender finally came you baffled them…

when punishment could be your claim

you sent them back to families

where they might heal and find some peace

…and from that shot that split the night

we hear your voice, we hear the call

to bear the standard that you bore.

through words that live forevermore:

“…With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,  let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.^” A.Lincoln

©   Ginny Brannan 2013 

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I just finished reading the book "Killing Lincoln"by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, an amazing story that speaks of such an intelligent man who bore the weight of Civil War on his shoulders, Lincoln was a visionary seeing well past the war, past what was to what could be. He is said to have suffered from melancholia, and was haunted by frequent nightmares, one of which vividly depicted his death a full two weeks before he was shot. 

This is kind of an experimental piece playing with Free Verse and internal rhyme. It starts with Lincoln quote, first stanza is a dreamscape to recognize the nightmares that haunted Lincoln, leading into two stanzas of based on true facts, the fourth stanza a call to follow, the fifth a partial quote from Lincoln's Second Inaugural a short time before he was shot.

*Original image by author taken at Gettysburg Battle Reenactments 2007

Sharing at d'Verse Poets Pub Open Link Night Week #83.