A Rare and Ripe Moment

Four years ago,
we did something amazing:
we elected a Black President.

This year, we did something
even more amazing.
We re-elected him!

It is not amazing
simply because he is Black,
but because we are not
ever again
going to go back
to where we were
before we broke down that wall.

We know that now.

We still have not
ever
elected a woman to the Presidency,
but we all know
now
that we will do that, too.
If not next time,
then soon. Surely soon!

And he--Barack Obama--
has not gone back, either,
to debate what we used to wonder:
whether it could be
or could work.
He has gone on--
is going on--
to what needs to be next.

History gave him
almost a hopeless recession,
and he not only
has managed that,
but managed to do so
with a wall of left-over racism
between him
and what he needed to do.

Now, he has said,
let us end these wars,
teach our children,
protect our poor,
and sieze this moment
to become more than
what we ever have been.

Together.
We,
the people,
together,
in order to form
a more perfect union.

It is a rare
and ripe moment.

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