SOL: Languish

'Now that the Union is no longer in danger, 
now that the North and South are no longer enemies: 
now that they have ceased to scatter, tear, and slay each other...'

What is now, when now is not yet?
Now, we divide. Now, we stake a claim. Now, we wave flags of dissent.
Now, in blood-shed wider than the Mississippi, the red sea does part.  

Not yet.  

Yet, do we face our visceral hatred of ourselves and humanity.
Yet, do we acknowledge history, so brutal, ever-present and boiling over yet again.
Yet, not yet.

Now.

'let us strive on to finish the work we are in; 
to bind up the nation's wounds; 
to care for him who shall have borne the battle'

A past incomplete. A series of not yet.  
Hold on. Sit tight. But no one has made it right--yet.

A present void of now.