To Rebuild

The house was built,  
Brick by brick, pane by pane,  
Initially withstanding winds,  
The force of a hurricane. 

But over time, the faults are found  
As storm after storm  
Assails, the craftsmanship outdated,  
In need of reform. 

The windows break, one by one,  
Under the weight of wrongs, the structure strains, 
Until one day fire catches,  
And only the foundation of good intentions remains.  

While easiest would be to walk,  
To abandon, moving on to rebuild,  
The value is seen by those who have called it 
Home, desires to be fulfilled.  

Remembering the mistakes,  
Maintaining the hope of freedom,  
Hand in hand, we work,  
Entering a new season.  

The work is not complete until  
The walls protect all who live there,  
No exceptions. Abandonment of all  
Unnecessary despair.  

A job led by all, not by one,  
We work long days turn long nights.  
The creation of our hands  
Proving more than surface level acknowledgment of rights.  

The past is not buried  
But underlies 
What we have transformed  
Before our eyes.

Copyright © 2021 by Hallie Knight. Published in Poem-a-Day on January 23, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Inaugural Poem Contest for Students

“What a powerful analogy Hallie Knight has drawn for us: our country imagined as a house that we built together and has been figuratively destroyed. Yet the foundations of our hopes, ideals, and perseverance remain intact, allowing us to rebuild our country, our home, echoing Abraham Lincoln’s powerful words: ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’”
—Richard Blanco