How the West Was Lost

A Poem

We held this truth to be self-evident
No mere claim to which one gives ascent
That this land of ours we called the West
Was a desert for the dispossessed

The cynic sages made it plain
How whiteness left its horrid stain
“Dismantle! Decolonize! Cancel! Disrupt!
Tell the privileged caste their rule is up!”

But who before heard freedom ring
When men would bleed for rights of kings?
Was lady justice on her throne
When ancient zealots cast their stones?

Who were they who said ‘no more’?
Who said what none had said before
That none has rights to rule another
So we will strive to call each “brother”

When King dreamt aloud of a righteous new nation
And invoked the words of a slave owner’s Declaration
Did he not think that worthy of mention?
Or are there truths that we must hold in tension?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident?”
We scoff; Oh, we know how it really went
But could the age-old ways…