Fifes and Drums/Currency

by Mary Edith Buhler

CURRENCY

"Let us pay with our bodies for our soul's desire."—Theodore Roosevelt.

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O, high of soul, flesh doth not overwhelm,
    But is the means wherewith all things to buy!
It is the coin current of the realm
    Wherein we live and die.

Upon our far strange journey to that Home
    From which we are astray,
The Providence that destined we should roam
    Gave us wherewith to pay.

We shall arrive if nobly we aspire,
    And spending flesh to buy the spirit free,
Pay with our bodies for our souls' desire
    For perfect liberty.

M. E. Buhler.