What do we know?
Could we write unafraid?
Would anyone read it?
Would it get a good grade?
Are we grounded in anything
we’d write and then sign,
with sacred Honor, Fortune,
and Life on the line?
What do we know
winnowed by living,
what grain of belief
left for our scrivening?
More thanks to photographer S.W. Berg
for the nostalgic image,
and to Thomas Jefferson
for the enduring words.
