Sonnettics

Our many states and people still are one
The one that brings together many hopes
Two hundred fifty years and still not done
And yet still bound by strength exceeding ropes

The “rope” of this great nation can be found
In every heart that beats with freedom’s blood
The blood of hope that stains this holy ground
Still nurtures every blossom, seed, and bud

A declaration made is more than words
Our independence grows when we are true
We rise together like majestic birds
Like eagles bound for freedom in the blue

United in our union we still soar
And know what we can be, and so much more.

Remember when the sidewalk felt like Hell
When everything would melt as fast as ice
If cold is whispered, heat must be a yell
Of words when eating jalapeño spice

The heat of words that linger past their sound
Like sweat that lingers long on reddened skin
Or wilted plants collapsed on sun-baked ground
Of earth that’s baked too hard to let them in

Can similes evaporate in verse
In heated lines of poetry we read
And no, don’t say: “You know, it could be worse . . .”
What’s worse is never something sane folk need

My sanity is sapped by summer’s heat
Where poems droop in rhymes that just repeat.