Inauguration of Humanity

Once more the fragile
Pendulum of humanity
Has swung
And a rational,
Caring mind
Has sprung forth
With words
That in all hearts
Inspire, hopes, dreams
And a new desire
To somehow
Be better than
In our small way
That we thought
We could ever be

But in this moment
Of unimaginable rapture
In this moment
That has ignited
In this dark
And most bitter hour
A spark of hope
In this moment
That has made us
Hunger in our squalor
For a sweet tomorrow
For a better world
One of caring heart
One of noble mind
We must not
We can not
Forget our long
Heroic journey
Our endless struggle
To achieve
The foothills
Of the snowy
Distant mountain top
Still hid beneath
A curtain of humanity’s
Sorrow and darkness

We rise now
Upon history’s
Cruel, unforgiving cusp
Two ways
Present them-selves
And once again
We have the right
To choose
Honour, decency, dignity
Or we can surrender
Like we have
So often done
To the bitterness
Of dark and
Desperate days
When we once looked
Upon those
Of a different color
Of a different creed
As somehow less
Than we in our
Degree of majestic
And somewhat
Ignoble splendour
Conceived ourselves
To ever be

A leader has arisen
A man of humble
But of noble roots
Has taken on
Tasks far too difficult
To ever imagine
With a promise
That together
If we but have
One heart
If we but have
One thought of mind
If for a moment
However brief in time
We at last remember
That we are of one race
Though diverse
And many coloured
That we are
Of one humanity
That began in one place
And in one distant time
We can at last
Reach out to
A destiny that
Has always beckoned
And accept
The moment
Of sweet glory
That God
In His infinite wisdom
Has set before us