One Nation Under Man

A house divided cannot stand.¹
It’s like a castle in the sand.²
It’s like a palace on the shore
With a storm coming to its door.

A house divided cannot live.
It won’t repent and won’t forgive.
It sharpens swords that it has made
Against itself, which blunts its blade.

It’s a house stealing from itself
By baring its own pantry shelf.
It’s a man tying himself down
With no hands to untie around.³

A house divided is our nation.
Let this be your Declaration.
Its soldier trips against his friend.
They fall together in the end.⁴

We are not out of many one.
We’re not E Pluribus Unum.
We are out of one mass many.
Clinton had it right. Uncanny! ⁵

We’re divided in politics,
In religion, in our life rubrics
For what we set as our standard—
From our own values meandered.

Our entertainment is a rift
Where many fall. It’s quite a shift
From where our convictions once came.
To media we shift the blame.

Why don’t we unplug our cable,
Internet; make our minds stable,
Make convictions resolutions,
Make fights reconciliations?

This house divided will not stand
With what we want, what we demand.
May we from the paths we have trod
Become one nation under God.

by Sara DuVall

1. Matthew 12:25
2. Matthew 7:26-27
3. Matthew 12:29
4. Jeremiah 46.12
5. During his presidency, Bill Clinton accidentally said that E pluribus unum means “Out of one, many.”

Copyright 2021 by Sara DuVall