The Liberty Bell

Cracked when it first came from London,
our Liberty Bell suffered strain.
Recast and repaired, it was finally hung
in Philly’s old State House again
in seventeen hundred and fifty-three,
despite its unfortunate history
of weakness of tone and fragility,
and there, right nearby, it remains...,
a symbol of vulnerabilities
that those who are fighting for liberty
face daily to keep from bending a knee
to tyrants or kings again. We may,
as a people, be less than perfect
and tonally strident in our own way,
but striving for better deserves respect
and, possibly, even some praise.