America's choosing day

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O l d   G l o r y

Fort Jackson National Cemetery

Columbia, South Carolina

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If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
'Twould not be you, Niagara -- nor you, ye limitless prairies --

nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite -- nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyser-loops

ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon's white cones -- nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes --

nor Mississippi's stream:
-- This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name --

the still small voice vibrating -- America's choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen -- the act itself the main,

the quadriennial choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous'd -- sea-board and inland --

Texas to Maine -- the Prairie States -- Vermont, Virginia, California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West -- the paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling -- (a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's:)

the peaceful choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity -- welcoming the darker odds, the dross:
-- Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify --

while the heart pants, life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.

= Walt Whitman =

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Happy Tuesday :: Happy Election Day :: God Bless America