Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
He who warned and, uh, the arms,
And bells were rung out as alarms
To tell the British we were there,
And had our guns, and to beware.

He said to his friend, “Abe Lincoln, listen
I am riding out alone
On a super-secret mission.
You can’t get me by telephone
But if you don’t hear from me by ten
Send me a text and only when
I’m at the hotel I’ll hit you back.
This way the rebels can’t attack
And long will fly the Union Jack.”

Then he said “Good-night!” and with guns blazing
Rode off for London. He was amazing.
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
He said, “You’ll never take away
These guns I’m shooting; you just try.”
He fired again into the sky.
It seemed he meant to shoot the moon.
That stirring night in early June.

Meanwhile, Lincoln, worried stiff
For his dauntless comrade Paul,
Took a cab to City Hall
And asked Grand Mayor Washington
To rig up his racing skiff.
They went by water, through a squall,
Each of them, too, had a gun.

Then Lincoln rang a second bell
There in the skiff, upon the waves.
It stopped the war and freed the slaves
And they all went to the hotel,
Which doubled as a rebel base
And Paul was glad to see Abe’s face
Broad and smiling, like the nation
(This was months before the assassination.)
Then Johnny Tremain, and Mark McGwire,
And lots more men that we admire
Joined up with the delegation.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How we used our guns to make Nazis dead.
How the rebels were the braver men
And still are today like they were back then.
How we beat the British at their worst
That’s why the Second Amendment’s first.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night his bells did ring
And so through the years we’ve come to sing
Of the way he saved us from our fear.
While the past is sometimes today scorned,
As a story we do not need to hear,
He was brave for us, he was he who warned.
He was our first President, Paul Revere.

(Source: newyorker.com)