FLAG

A
rainbow in all skies,
arced over
children at play in muddy schoolyards, the alphabet fresh in their mouth.

The belly dancer above
the yawn of the fresh grave.
Steadfast always
at the ball, the rally, making the scene.

Folded like the finest shirt
and put to bed with kisses,
awakened for celestial work,
to unfurl with
the languor
of tresses loosed in the bedroom.
Hung for all to see.

Rope burns welt; tools misapplied to make midnight incisions under fluorescence. If

A leader
bruised in battle
but
fearless, indefatigable.
Calls the troops
Forward and on.
The cell is sewn
to the cell,
bound with the promise of unity.
The body moves in a
tapestry of memory.
Stars and stripes,
moons and triangles,
graphics imbued with us vs. them.
An official insignia
clean-shaven in mirrors, polished to blinding.

a person screams in an empty room and only one person hears it, did it happen?

I pledge allegiance
To the flag

Allegiance to whatever takes
away the mystery
of what we are and tells us who we were.

I pledge allegiance
to the flag

To the wars won
And lost
Regardless of cost.

(cont.)

I pledge allegiance
to the flag

To symbols synchronized
and harnessed to
pull a mask
a bit of cloth
a prosthetic identity
over the face of
our collective
humanity.