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The established lordship of the Cross & Crescent
is as steady as a rock.
But ...
There is stone-breaking saxifrage,
the flower that splits the rock
that splits the human race.
Its roots,
so wee and weak and yet so strong,
crack the crevices of the exclusive creeds.

The pastoral fortress of the faithful in power
is as still as a stone.
But ...
There is sweetbarkèd sassafras,
the tree that grows in the ideal
that grows in real, unsevered siblinghood.
Its leaves,
so unalike and yet so similar,
unite humanity in the inclusive Norm.

The hard core of the clay that holds sway by law
cleaves to the supernal potter's brand of belief.
But ...
There are the stone-breaking and the sweetbarkèd,
the ones that never waived their right
to come together on common ground,
to meet and be met in that noble Name.

The frigid rigid rock is split,
the crumbling blackened brick broken,
the battered bulwark cloven open;
the buds of the new life burst.
And at break of dawn
there appear in natural light
the several leaves of the laureled Saxifrax.

Vinsent Nandi
47.SML-48.NMY