Imperialist Bastard III: The American Rebellion

The American Rebellion

1776
Before

          Twas not while England's sword unsheathed
        Put half a world to flight,
     Nor while their new-built cities breathed
        Secure behind her might;
     Not while she poured from Pole to Line
        Treasure and ships and men--
     These worshippers at Freedoms shrine
        They did not quit her then!

     Not till their foes were driven forth
        By England o'er the main--
     Not till the Frenchman from the North
       Had gone with shattered Spain;
     Not till the clean-swept oceans showed
        No hostile flag unrolled,
     Did they remember that they owed
        To Freedom--and were bold!


After

The  snow lies thick on Valley Forge,
The ice on the Delaware, 
But the poor dead soldiers of King George
They neither know nor care.

Not though the earliest primrose break
On the sunny side of the lane,
And scuffling rookeries awake
Their England' s spring again.

They will not stir when the drifts are gone,
Or the ice melts out of the bay:
And the men that served with Washington
Lie all as still as they.

They will  not  stir  though  the mayflower blows
In the moist dark woods of pine,
And every rock-strewn pasture shows
Mullein and columbine.

Each for his land, in a fair fight,
Encountered strove, and died,
And the kindly earth that knows no spite
Covers them side by side.

She is too busy to think of war;
She has all the world to make gay;
And,  behold, the yearly flowers are
Where they were in our fathers' day!

Golden-rod by the pasture-wall
When the columbine is dead,
And sumach leaves that turn, in fall,
Bright as the blood they shed.

---

I really like the imagery and meaning of the second one.
We all die as brothers. We should strive to live as brothers.

But still, it scares me.
Pollution, global warming, deforestation, urbanization.

Will our children and our children's children still see the flowers where they were in our fathers' days when we sit in graves, finally at one with our enemies?

It scares me.