Read Poems by Heather Chernen

  

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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!

Copyright © Heather Chernen | Year Posted 2009