The Forging Heart

In the unyielding dawn of a young nation’s fire,
America’s spirit was hammered from raw ore,
not common metal, but a moral alloy, bright and pure,
resilient as the Rockies, vast as prairie skies.

At the master’s forge, values took their shape:
integrity the hammer, faith the steady heat.
Each strike rang true. Promises carried weight;
trust was backed by craft, forging bonds
time could not break.

Our dauntless spirit proved itself in flame,
from Philippine islands to Iwo Jima’s black sand,
we stormed the beaches, broke the chains of tyrants,
liberated continents, rebuilt the world with open hand.
The alloy held; the fire burned clear and grand.

Yet shadows gathered as new wars began to grind;
in Vietnam’s green hell the hammer blows grew wild.
Trust cracked like cooling steel; the nation’s will was tried.
Under Johnson’s watch proud ships were seized,
and pride first bled on foreign seas.

Then Carter’s winter quenched the coals to gray;
hostages in chains, a nightmare without end.
The forge stood cold; the eagle hung its head,
while deserts mocked and empires laughed at men.

Reagan stoked the bellows, fed the fire anew;
the night was held at bay, the light broke through.
For one bright span the alloy sang once more;
walls came down, and morning kissed the shore.

But when his watch was done, the guardians turned aside;
for gold and fleeting power they sold what once was prized.
Factories shuttered, borders left unguarded wide,
CEOs and politicians traded soul for shine.
Depth became dazzle, substance wrapped in waste;
the nation, hollowed, teetered on the edge of its own rift.

Now we search through circuits and code
to rekindle what was sold.
From cooling ashes, a phoenix stirs,
not myth, but memory in our blood.

We reclaim the forge with tools anew:
old wisdom fused to boundless flight,
rockets’ red glare reborn as guiding light.
AI’s ingenuity joined to human perseverance,
tempering tomorrow in the same enduring fire.

America rises, transformed still unbroken:
With a heart that remembers how to-fight.