Nine, Five, Four 2015

Nine, Five, Four 2015

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.

Solved: “No union is more profound than 

Marriage,” ancient-sourced:

“Two people be-

Come something greater than they once were.”

Constitutional:

“Fundamental.”

“Overstepped...judicial putsch”

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.