We the people willingly wrote ourselves
into a constitutional corner—
a colossal conundrum of corrupted consummation,
a Cain-enabled Original Sin
of biblical proportion.

The Virginia Compromise left us compromised,
incomplete—
a three-fifths fraction that fractured our nascent faction
replete
with built-in failure:
a self-inflicted wound,
an aggravated assault
of our own fault,
a festering sore fantastic,
a crack in the American core romantic
conception of the birth of our nation
that left us limping along
with the right of the strong
in the race for a new kind of station.

The accord left our land in discord,
a nation divided against itself—
the dye cast for a future conflict
of uncivil proportions—
uncivil distortions
pitting the rights of the state
against of the rights of man’s fate.

The vestiges of hate
that permeate the roots of our founding
permanently relate to the source of our floundering.

But great expectations have ramifications.
Houses built upon on the sands of discrimination
Must crumble and fall into desolation
To make room for edifications
That foster equal application
of the Articles of Confederation.