It was in the air,
Borne on the currents
Of hope and history,
Those self-evident truths
Of equality and rights.

It was on the rise,
This notion that power
Is invested in the people,
That governments
Draw their powers from the consent
Of the governed.

It was on the wing,
The recognition of the turns and twists
That the pursuit and surge of power
Might take,
The suffocation of the human spirit
That unchecked, unbalanced power
Might impose.

Spiraling, synthesizing,
Meticulously categorizing,
The Constitution directed and deflected
The flow and circulation of power,
To hold fast against attempts
To sideline or undermine
The blessings of liberty
Promised,
Joyously and solemnly promised,
To ourselves and generations yet to come.

The above poem was a winner in Benicia’s 2018 Law Day Contest.

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