Bob Schwartz

Look closely at Lincoln
Watching the Inaugural Concert of 2017
Below his monumental chair.
A slave to stone and circumstance
Eyes fixed open on a scene
Out of his control.
He tries not to think back
To other gatherings
On other occasions
Not like this.
Not at all like this.
Look closely
To see him
Struggling to escape
Not just to free himself
But to descend the steps
A giant in the crowd
Striding and proclaiming
What he had seen
And done
And hoped.
Instead he sits
Unmoving and silent
Witness to a truth
A struggle
He lived and died for:
Even now
Even this
All is not lost
All is never lost.