for Langston
What happens to a flag unfurled?
Does it float above a valiant band
Of patriots who risk their honor and their lives
To free their land?
Does it mark the farthest desert reach of empire?
Does it drape the serial-numbered coffins
Of the young who never learn?
Or does it burn?
John Lawson lives in Pittsburgh. His poems have appeared in many venues, including South and West, Taproot, Cairn, and Paper Street. He was Visions Magazine's Poet of the Month in 2000.