Valley Forge

The new nation hung in the ice of Starvation and hunger Makeshift shacks barely standing against the wind Shoes without sole Breeches shredded without promise of mending. A handful of men Conceived in liberty Refusing to die Or surrender a dream Dedicated to the proposition Those self-evident, inalienable rights. Theirs was the courage The fire lit, in a bleak Frozen world Never to be extinguished The blood of generations Flowing from their wounds Forever indebted To the very rags That held them Together. ~ Laurence Overmire (Previously published in Poetfest Anthology, Summer 2000; Honor and Remembrance, Indelible Mark Publishing,2007)