History

         It's been said that

         the prize of victory

         includes the privilege

         of writing history.

   In many cases, this is true,

   especially when international conflict

   ends in total surrender.

But one of the strange consequences

from the hellish incivility

of the mid-nineteenth century war

waged within our nation's bowels,

   brother against brother,

   is that each side had the opportunity

   to write its own version –

   at least the white sides.

      And now, 150 years later,

      the aftermath of these dueling histories,

      along with the stories still-buried,

      from those middle-caught, voiceless,

      is the bitter fruit of both

      our silence and our discord;

   waving in flags of defeated battlefields

   resurrected when history taught 

   bumps up against reality altered,

   and Emancipation’s lament

   marches us farther down Justice’s road.

Peace remains in the hallway,

whispering her plea for ears

willing to listen, daring us to hear

others’ stories, even when

their truth challenges our own.

Photo by Joe Stephenson

© 2015 Todd Jenkins