By Michael Tyler, EJS Poet-in-Residence
First, we must face the moment with a resolve that has been sobered,
By the harrowing confirmation about the paternity of our pride;
When the undisputed truth of our iniquitous ill-conception
Reveals the base and foul collusions who are the parents of our shame.
Then, we must take ourselves to task, with probing dedication,
To ask the painful questions that swab the surface of our past,
So we can culture facts and fiction to code the helix of our traits,
And finally alter the mutations that cause the evils that we spawn.
Because the hour of the outbreak of the plague for every virtue,
Whose conscience stealing virus kills the feeling in our hearts,
And replicates with fury to imperil and impair
Every moral inclination for what is human and humane —
That moment is upon us and the countdown has begun,
For the prowess of every science to pledge allegiance and proceed,
To find what’s rooted deep within us from our origins and beyond
That has evolved to enable our existence to this day.
For what is most innate and inherent within our most essential selves,
The nascent strand of intuition inside every gene of truth and faith,
Lies the cure for the corruption that defies our protests and our prayers,
That can inoculate our hope and save the dying soul of the nation.