NaPoWriMo April 23rd - Two Gates to Washington City (a riddle)

Two Gates to Washington City (a riddle)

Two sets of Italian-casted brass statues
flank primary routes into Washington City.

One, anchoring Memorial Bridge
is named The Arts of War:
Sacrifice on the near side,
Valor on the far.
Both feature a man on horse with
a woman walking proudly alongside.

Another, flanking Rock Creek Parkway,
is called Peaceful Arts:
Aspiration and Literature on one side -
a man is holding a book,
Music and Harvest, the other –
a woman is holding a harp.

Pegasus, the winged horse
sits on both sides of the parkway.
A spring bursts forth
wherever his hoof hits the earth.
Giver of water, life, hope.

Little more need be said, but
there is so much more to say -

One suggests that sustenance
derives from war, aggression, conquest,
and the valor and sacrifice that
guarantee success at war.

The gilding is clean and polished.
But the heavy casting is gaudy, stagey.
Its foundation pedestal has cracks
and the bridge itself is in a state
of quiet, desperate disrepair. Sequestration.

The other predicts that peaceful pursuits,
music and literature, will bring us
the harvest and the aspiration
our survival requires.

It bears a refined, light, lithe casting,
but its gilding is dirty, dusty,
tarnished, and dull,
as if neglected,
as if seldom appreciated.
Yet its foundation pedestal is solid.

A curved concrete walkway
(and 41-step staircase) follows
the curvature of the Potomac River
and connects the two gates
(at right angles to a tangent
drawn from its midpoint)
That tangent line runs parallel to the face
of the Lincoln Memorial,
the Washington Monument,
and the Capitol, all parallel to each other.

Parallel things are forever
the same distance apart,
near or far,
and never touch.

And two things
both at right angles
to the same straight line
are parallel to each other.