"...at the twilight's last gleaming..."

My property flew 4 American flags along the highway out front. Every 4-6 months, I'd pull down the tattered remains of the old ones and replace them with new, as carefully as I could through the tangle of the oleander bushes. Then I'd gently fold them and put them in a box, planning on one day taking them to a local scout troop, where they could be properly handled one last time.

As time past, the box grew quite full, the running of the property and the ease of forgetting such things in the warp and woof of life standing in the way, 'til finally, after 8 years, the box was overflowing.

How many times I was told to shut up the God talk or get fired because a resident was offended---from a conversation they had no part in anyway?

How many times had I been told that I had no equal footing in the town square because of my faith?




How many times did I hold that box over the dumpster, trying to convince myself that it just didn't matter any more?


Through circumstances outside of my control, that box has been handed over to another. I wonder what they'll do with it...

The Star-Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!