And This Flag I Have Damned So Longly

And this flag I have damned so longly, This rag, and nothing more, While death-mock-racy raved and raved and avenged its bloodthirst Over and over, Since the inception of a country, with George and Martha and Mary With nothing save civility, in drawingrooms and battlefields Is justified by that gentle face, somehow justified as being no longer a damnation But the stuff of a citizenry, with that face, and the mulatoo's face, sad, overgrown Abe and all of his honesty, How proud I am of the flag I never had, Of the society I spent decades criminalizing, cursing And of all the possibilities inherent in Innocence: That is the face of my President And this is my tattered flag!