the prize we seek

 the choices that we make are most constrained

by all the history we do not know

the pain of truth and life that is not slow

but constant motion towards what was gained

by long ancestral struggle we attained

some measure of the fair but the true flow

of justice and of freedom will not grow

just from our acts much else must be ordained

no victory is final that we learn

from childhood on and every hill we reach

turns out to be just one below the peak

so we clomp upwards while the seasons burn

still wondering just what it is we teach

and what exactly is the prize we seek