Our Constitution

A document may not seem
To be of much worth.
But one of them is among
The best of things on Earth.

It is our Constitution.
It helps to make us free.
Let's go through it a bit,
And many dear rights see.



It makes us free in many ways.
It does, and you can see:
By listing many rights,
Its words have made us free.

Free to vote for who makes laws,
And who will carry them out.
Free to vote so often that
The government fears your clout.

Free from having federal power
In just one group or man.
But power shared amongst three such
So rise, no tyrants can.

Free from having noblemen
Declared by government power,
With lords or dukes or earls or kings
That can rule ev'ry hour.

Free from being arrested
And imprisoned without trial,
When rebels and invaders
Do not threaten all the while.

Free from being convicted
By those who make the laws,
Instead of courts of justice,
With pow'r to decide your cause.

Free from being punished
For actions at a time
When such things were lawful,
But now they're called a crime.

Free from having those in power
Stay in power while
They've been impeached in the courts
And convicted in a trial.

Free from having those in power
Stay in pow'r too long.
Free to change the Constitution
When something is wrong.

Free to worship as we please,
To publish words and speak.
To gather peaceably together,
And petitions seek.

Free to keep and bear their arms
And weapons as they please.
Free to say they will not quarter
Soldiers in time of peace.

Free from having government
Search and seize their things,
Without good cause for warrants
That a policeman brings.

Free to have a jury
When accused of a crime.
And instead of being tried again,
Tried a single time.

Free from forced confessions,
That permit no defense.
Free to have due process
Of law before sentence.

Free from having private things
Seized for public use.
Governments must pay justly,
And thus avoid abuse.

Free to have a trial quick
When accused of a crime,
And have impartial juries
Every single time.

Free to know the charges,
And confront accusers;
So the truth can set us free,
And prevent our being losers.

Free to force a witness
To testify for you.
Free to force a lawyer
To defend through and through.

Free from having too much bail
Set when you're arrested.
Free from having fines too high,
That make your money tested.

Free from being punished
In cruel, unusual ways,
That were allowed by kings of old
In more barbaric days.

Free to enjoy rights
That are not written down.
(If all our rights were written,
They would fill a thousand towns.)

When this was first written,
Men were held in chains.
But slavery was ended,
And it no more remains.

For the document was changed,
And bondage is no more.
The document forbids it,
For its cruelty was too sore.

All now have the right
To be a citizen;
Without regard to sex,
Or the color of one's skin.

Without regard to race,
Or the bondage of one's forbears.
They need not pay a poll tax,
Or be a rich man's heirs.

The document may not seem much,
But freedom it can give.
And patriots' dear blood
Was spilt to let it live.

And freedom it's already giv'n,
And it shall give again.
If held sacred to our hearts,
Defended by good men.

It is more dear than life itself,
And so it shall remain.
And may it always loudly ring
Our freedom's blessed strain.

May the song of liberty
Be always heard and seen.
And may the free world ne'er forget
How much it truly means.

*****

The Constitutional Convention

The United States Constitution

My poem about veterans