Day After Next

my usual raving about the exercise in asininity called patriotism

Independence

smacks of patriotism

of robber barons

and blacks and blues.

 

 

 

 

Like a fire, that word,

the word that dissipates in brightness

becoming dark

leaving a trail of smoke

for the gaping eyes below.

 

 

 

The contradiction of one single dream

one true love, open frontiers, and an oxen team

clapboard fences, james dean

A movie none of my generation

have seen.

Deferred to the future of deficit and overdrawn time

a place of population, money, and lime

red stripes and white running swiftly

to the stars, beneath the automobiles

like halter straps on humanity.

 

and we call it Independence.

Author's Note

yes, that is the American Idiot album cover.