by Lisa J. Rocklin
Let's just leave it down:
the flag—
half-staff.
Raise it high
on days when
half-staff.
Raise it high
on days when
no one dies
like that.
Declare a holiday.
Thoughts
make ineffective gauze.
Prayers
like that.
Declare a holiday.
Thoughts
make ineffective gauze.
Prayers
absorb no blood.
Flags were not meant
Flags were not meant
to serve
as tourniquets
or crucibles of
patriotism.
Let's just kneel
together
every time
our banner waves
for these days
we share—
collecting grief like debt.
as tourniquets
or crucibles of
patriotism.
Let's just kneel
together
every time
our banner waves
for these days
we share—
collecting grief like debt.
Let's mourn
the self-destruction
of a nation.
Let there be rage for
the addict we can't save
who shoots up
skin that isn't his
triggered by . . .
it doesn't matter why.
As long as he's fed
as long as we're willing
to yield more dead
as long as we keep
loading the chamber
let's just leave it down—
as a shroud—
the self-destruction
of a nation.
Let there be rage for
the addict we can't save
who shoots up
skin that isn't his
triggered by . . .
it doesn't matter why.
As long as he's fed
as long as we're willing
to yield more dead
as long as we keep
loading the chamber
let's just leave it down—
as a shroud—
star-spangled
and red.
Lisa J. Rocklin is a writer, facilitator, community builder, and associate director of Women Writing for (a) Change, a nonprofit organization in Cincinnati, OH, that offers supportive writing circles to nurture and celebrate the individual voice.