Americans By Turns

For citizens to come

on our nation's 250th anniversary

by Chuck O'Neil, Milford Borough Poet Laureate

1

We were the new blood once

And this place

Was the world of our days

Like you in your century

We cared for the things

That those who came before us

Left when they left

Parks  buildings businesses 

Monuments  markers signs street trees

An old bluestone fountain

Hill-woods  the glen

The creeks the river

Ordinances  public hearings

Meeting minutes codes budgets

Word by written word

And word of mouth

A museum food pantry library the VFW

Newspapers lights crosswalks curb-cuts

Fields bridges intersections

Ambulance-fire-police

Snow removal trash collection

Yes all of it down to us

And we took care

Knowing our inheritance

Was in truth

Borrowed from our children

And held by us a while

In trust

For safekeeping

2

And we lived

Within shouting distance

Of each other

And from time to time

We shouted

Some swore

God was in the details

Some swore

It was the devil

Others were pretty sure

Details were just details

Yet we stood together for the flag

And said liberty and justice for all

And meant what we said

Because the town was ours then

And we were the town’s

And day-in day-out

The town to us was the county

The commonwealth the country even

A nation of-by-and-for the people we could see

A republic we could keep

Where hope was local 

And hope was the measure

Of everything held together

In trust

For safekeeping

3

And we learned early on

From our mothers and fathers

That we were born for hope

And seen by others everywhere

As the world’s best hope

And hope was the thing with feathers

And hope begets hope

And a little of it

Goes a long way around the block

From house to house to house

They taught us too

That hope is never a given 

That before you know it 

Hope could be lost or stolen

And warned us again and again

About the perils of indifference

And made certain we knew

There’d be times we’d need

To hope against hope

And that the cost for hope like freedom

Is attention vigilance always

Because it’s hard to predict

The day or the hour

When the thief will come

And because the thief is clever

And oftentimes hides in plain sight

So we were watchful

Though prone to distraction

Attached to our comforts

Inclined to judge others

Impelled to be right

But the makers of our nation

Who saw firsthand

We could be our own worst enemies

Had faith-enough still

To look past daily human failings

To the better angels of our nature

As we look out now to you

New blood of the Union

Life by life by life

Imagining whatever was ours

Has become yours

And your history of flaws

And your hunger for hope

Not much different from ours

Citizens in your own time

Who are more to us

And more in our meditations

Than you might suppose

Taking care

Word by written word

And word of mouth

Reverencing a town’s

Old bluestone fountain

Americans by turns

Keeping the republic

Holding up hope