American Crisis

the harder the conflict
the more glorious the triumph
to bind us all with unlimited power
and we have none to blame
but ourselves

a ravage superstition in secret opinion
to avoid every decent method
which wisdom could invent

how rapidly panic runs thru hidden thoughts
to secure a bridge to hell

there is a cabinet of fortitude in which
we must reason together
to awaken the flame of liberty
to set bounds to progress
with the devotion of
happy revenge

the soft resentment of a suffering people
staked to their own determined language of sorrow
draw forth the heart steeled with prejudice
determined to lay shoulders to the future world
alarmed at one common danger

the blood of children
shrinks back at the man that can
smile and grow the business of little minds
reasoning that all the treasures of the world
support murder
the absolute reason
of just cause

call me a whore of swearing allegiance
shrieking to the rocks and mountains
and slain of America

where the trick is to terrify
or seduce the people
and receive the power to
fear in the chain of mutual love
that breaks the vapors
of imagination

bring reason to your ears
hold up truth to fear
know well and see the way out of
our collected ravage
recruiting fast

we have the prospect of a glorious issue
the sad choice of a future
whose fathers shall look
on this picture
and weep

and yet there remains
one thoughtless wretch
who believes it not

S.A. Griffin
deleted from The Crisis by Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

S.A. Griffin / Photo by Mark Hanauer

S.A. Griffin. lives, loves and works in Los Angeles.