Down here, we still hoist that old flag, watch it twist and flap in

The wind

The way it did over the smacking lips and cracking whips of white men

Selling black men

Their sons carried it into battle, and died for it, from Gettysburg to Louisiana

For the right to be buried in their own separate cemeteries

Underneath that star-spangled banner

Senior year, you could go deaf from all the talk of terrorists and

Muslim fundamentalists

And I thought it strange in a town where so-called believers blew

Up women’s clinics we had the gall to act so offended

And when it would come time to say the Pledge in class, I would sit

My ass down at that desk

And the only words of it I said were “under God.” I figured we were

Beyond the help of anybody else

Flags!

Flags!

Flags!

Granddaddy unfolds it like a flower after the Lord’s Prayer, humble

And quiet and still

While the dew still lies on the grass, while the sun hides beyond

The old steel mill

And I place my hand over my little heart, and he holds the salute

He held overseas

And, looking up into his shining eyes, I behold a glory that I

Cannot see

Flags!

Like a drop…

Flags!

…in a bucket!

Flags!

Like dust…

Flags!

…on a scale!

Flags!

Insufficient!

Flags!

All of y’all’s nations!

Flags!

All of y’all’s flags!