Civic Elegy

  You have been away for too long

  in the great forever that overtakes us all

  remembered most in history and art

  but not in the still beating heart.

  Iconic still as a huge figure

  seated and calmly looking out

  past your many small visitors

  who gape, and read, and pose.

  Some few perhaps try to imagine 

  what you might have to say about

  this divided nation you look out on now,

  with hatreds that might seem familiar.

  Would you wonder, father Abraham,

   whether it might endure much longer?