crossing rivers

where crossing rivers can be made to count

against the value of all we hold dear

in spite of all that’s known at the frontier

where hope and learning are held paramount

no one would wait on those who’d dare remount

for the long journey of the pioneer

made by the awkward and the most sincere

who have their truths to keep and to recount

no voyage matters this at last we learn

except to those who never need the map

the ones excepted from each changing trend

those are the masters who will always yearn

to hear our answer yet not give a rap

since all must come out equal in the end

dessalines at vertières

our meanings come from choices handed down

by those who built the towers and raised the sky

the folk who farmed the fields and filled the town

who'd made the horrid trip and did not die

their long hope was back to lost home to fly

but all the horrors made their footsteps slow

while home was lost in the far eastern glow

they had their duties and their constant care

and all the many pains we cannot know

all changed with dessalines at vertières

so much depends upon a simple frown

a gesture or a winking of the eye

to  make disaster or to grant renown

turn all our wishes into one great lie

or  send us each to the last great good-bye

by means of one most massive mortal blow

that bursts the normal cheery human flow

and sends us hurtling to the upper air

until that moment all had seemed too slow

all changed with dessalines at vertières

the human is a move from verb to noun

a chance to prove that we can best rely

upon the one who could not play the clown

but was the stalwart soul who did not cry

under the lash but rather chose to fly

with the fresh dawn and the new morning glow

the day of history when all would know

just what we were and how much we would dare

to do when we came up from down below

all changed with dessalines at vertières

prince you have heard your men were far too slow

to face our wrath and take the angry blow

that meant our freedom in the open air

do not be angry for you could not know

the outcome would be more than a tableau

all changed with dessalines at vertières

clearer paradigm

no evidence the world is bent in shape

a bluish globe with wooly white of cloud

the mountains form a contrast sharp and proud

against the sea we note the golden cape

while in the sky dark birds seem to escape

the planetary force while winds are loud

above the foam and yet we are uncowed

though eyes are open and all mouths agape

there is a reason we have reached this place

and taken stock at the appropriate time

for our authority to be compelled

into new channels and a different space

with better thought and clearer paradigm

now that the party’s over and trial’s held