Delaware Day
Were they hoisting tankards of Sam Adam’s
Winter Ale when they congregated at Batell’s
Tavern in Dover on that frigid day?
Did the fife and drum band play till closing?
Were raucous barmaids tickling bawdy chins,
Coaxing the old boys into misbehaving?
After the ink was dry, did they swagger down
The cobblestone street, arm in arm beneath
The gas lamps singing and shouting “America
The Beautiful?”
Could they have foreseen fireworks in Pearl Harbor
memorializing the occasion’s anniversary
on the same date? How about the wars, the uncivil Civil,
wars one and two, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf-chapters one
and two, Afghanistan, and the myriad of other battles
lost in the interstices, between the cracks of history?
Were they prepared for the carnage?
Did it turn out as they imagined when they signed the
ratification? Perhaps they were having a Monday night football
moment, steeped and pickled in happy ale, floating between
the goal posts.
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