Works

Party Lines
© 2004, Roy Stucky

The liberty that blood was shed to win
Erodes to fickle whim and passing fad.
The noble dream that's badly tattered fades
To greed that can't evade the days to come.

The battle that was won in elder times
Dissolves in party lines that don't connect.
It's time that we inspect the way ahead.
The path our feet will tread we may repent.

The national identity has broken into bits.
The people do what fits into the state of their own mind.
The secret left behind is that community's not cheap.
The peace we want to keep demands concessions to the whole.

But groups can steal your soul if you don't learn to take a stand,
Refuse to wear the brand or have a notch cut in your ear.
Too many live in fear of what their friends might have to say.
Yet freedom floats away from those who fold their hands to sleep.

The most destructive ideology the damned can possess is to believe there is no such thing as damnation.