If someone should ask you for your invite --
your ticket, your license, your ID --
if someone should seek a warrant for your striving
in this, the home we made free,
point to the Rockies, majestic in snow,
to the blue-misted Appalachian peaks;
signal the prairies, rustling as they glow
with corn and soybean and golden wheat;
point to the Mississippi, surging south,
to the Missouri, Colorado and Rio Grande --
black, brown and white waters frothing at the mouth
to knit and wash and baptize our lush land --
tell them: We belong to the Golden Gate
our arms stretched wide, our yearnings raw;
to Brooklyn and New Orleans where everyone met
to build a rep, parade some steps and Mardi Gras;
to mesas burning like embers at sunset;
our passions dancing in the sheen;
to Ellis Island, our feet and eyes all wet
in the reflection of Lady Liberty's green.
We belong to those faces on Rushmore
calm and calming as worried winds blow,
to tears that salted up a Wounded Knee
and blood that fertilized an Alamo,
to Old Faithful and sequoias with noble sap,
to every magnolia blossom in this jubilee;
we, laden vessels buoyant with hope
and tacking through herky-jerky seas,
we, blenders of the faraway accents
that bent our mothers' tongues,
we, risers through the broken strides
who kept our faith and our songs,
we belong to the peal of freedom
frozen in a Philadelphia bell,
to the cries of souls in the bowels of ships,
our longings dipped in ancient wells,
to leafy lanes and hard-rock streets --
chilling in Alaska, liming in the Keys;
to Texas hootenannies and California beaches,
and searchlights manifesting a Pacific breeze.
We belong to that shining city
that angels imagined glinting on a hill,
to the promise that in our father's house
many mansions are beckoning still;
to each other, in bosom and gratitude,
as we touch and break bread and kneel,
in each other's grace and beatitude,
in compact and covenant and commonweal;
to something providential, inexorable, resilient,
even when battered in streams, tell them:
We belong to some mighty rivers
bounding from a mountain of dreams.
Rohan Preston can be reached at 612-673-4390.
