& i can't stop thinking about how four men carved in stone actually matter

i'd like to think that the founding fathers, the framers, the men who wore wigs & makeup & helped make all this a possibility for me, would look at our country, at the cherry blossoms refusing to bloom next to the white-columned house engraved with their memories, and turn on their heels to leave. i'd like to think they'd be disappointed in the mess we made of their paperwork as soon as they turned their backs. i'd like to think that they'd be on our side.

but i can't stop thinking about the fact that our country was built on the backs of these men's slaves. i can't stop thinking about their signatures deftly sealing us all to a fate where one person doesn't equal one vote. i can't stop thinking, what if the founding fathers would be proud?

Posted in response to the challenge Founders.

image of green lilac bushes with white lilac flowers standing against a bright blue sky

OverTheRainbow

VT

12 years old

More by OverTheRainbow

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  • Poetry

    By OverTheRainbow

    dear jane

    you were always a constant to me.

    there was a book in the back of our classroom

    tucked between crates of other, more important tomes

    it had a picture of you on the cover and i read it almost every day

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  • Fiction

    By OverTheRainbow

    The West Wind

    The West Wind is a banker in a smart navy suit and a tie. His dress shoes clack on the pavement; he’s got someplace to be, always someplace to be, rushing to the sidewalk, the subway, the elevator, checking his gold Rolex watch.

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  • Poetry

    By OverTheRainbow

    the river in the woods

    is more of a creek,

    covered in yellow leaves and rotting branches 

    that staunch the flow like a bandage over blood.

    The river in the woods

    probably used to rush

    like its brothers farther north, shrieking

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