Nine, Five, Four

Nine, Five, Four


Nine wise, black-robed, sequestered scions
Homogeneous,
With one voice: Law.

Speaking with brave equivocation
For this now's people
with forebears' words:

Compromising, a tenuous whole,
Split along old faults,
Bridging others.


Jurisprudentially bound by rule:
Accounting to God,
Accounting Man.

Channeling precedent, common claims
On humanity
With consequence.

Bravely banishing uncertainty
With uncertainty,
With spliced nuance.


Six men, three women, four liberals,
Six Roman Catholics,
A Latino,

Georgian, African-American,
Two Californians,
Four New Yorkers,

Italian-Americans, three Jews
Four conservatives,
More summed than whole.


Holding a polished, law-honed mirror,
Reflecting itself,
One court, one Land,

One live, heart-beating Constitution,
One deciding vote,
Straddling dissent.

Balancing justice and humans' rights,
Truth and tradition:
Science and faith.


Proclaiming:  Here, no more may "same-sex
Married couples have
Their lives burdened

By reason of government decree
in visible and
public ways." No!

"Majority goes off course," and yet
"Federalism,"
Firm-rooted, bides.


Conjuring Blackstone and Solomon,
Burke, Locke, Marshalls both,
Unruly mob:

Admitting, tacitly the failures,
Imperfections in
Decisions past.

Nine patriots, Americans all,
Five: equality
Four: yesterday.