Ode to the flag

I wrote this in response to our involvement in overseas events and the sense of "nationality" rabid in so many people here. But considering the outrage of our "patriotic" citizens against people who have the same rights and are due the same benefits of freedom to love whoever the hell they want and to make a movie about God, I think the poem is quite apropros. If you can't respect my friend Tim's choice to love his boyfriend or my friend Adam's right to be atheist, then you need to go the fuck back to where you came from.

My nation's colors bleed
like a poison coursing thru angry veins.
A foundation of freedom cracks
beneath the weight of fear.
Trepidation and sensibility disappear
as the mob of bigotry initiates loud voices.
"American" pushes "human" down
like a bully on the playground.
How such hate shames me-
Citizen of this world.
One of the brethern "under God."
To weep for man - black, white, yellow, red, brown -
means treason for the "land of liberty and justice for all."
To extend my hand to my foreign kin
invites cold shoulders and shunned silence.
I must forget OUR God to be true
to "red, white, and blue."

(from 100703)