ENDURING is the word that comes to mind
In thinking of your hallowed buildings
And time-honored arch
From egg white bricks to cinder blocks
Your structures get built and destroyed;
But reconstructed every time
You have stood earlier than the birth of a nation,
Raising its forefathers how to break their shackles—
To oust abusers and to roar in the face of wrongdoing
Many have already entered your rooms
Being promised the fountain and golden lilies;
Searching for keys and that last puzzle piece
They are restless beings that dared
To scale your high towers
In hopes of stripping the ivory
They exit; a different person from before,
Their morals and spirits recorded on a sheet—
As you scatter them to boundless ambitions
Towards dreams beyond seeing,
In the thick fog of reality where they
Become lifelong servants of their field
Then their fight becomes all-consuming
Whether it is for health or education;
They all have their frontlines
Some choose to commit to the gavel
Relentlessly hoping to tip the scales
Of justice that will never sense their weight
You have raised them to compete,
To devote in a lifelong struggle;
May your compassion always surround them
Despite the gloomy and dark days,
After hundreds of years,
You leave many things behind. F LORRAINE C. SUAREZ
