Red, White and True

 

This little poem is linked to week 167 of Saturday Centus.   To read other uses of the picture prompt, just click here.

You’re tattered.

 

You’re shabby.

 

You’re bruised now

 

and broken.

 

You remember before

 

and the lovely words spoken.

 

You flew once in breezes

 

but hang now in despair…

 

Indifference and apathy

 

abandoned you there.

 

But you gathered the slurs

 

and the hate and the words

 

and used them for courage

 

and shoved back undeterred.

 

It is woven in your fabric

 

DNA’d in your thread

 

Your pride and your fervor

 

White, blue and red.

 

For so proudly you remain

 

At twilight’s last gleaming.

 

In the rocket’s red glare

 

People are streaming…

 

Toward a land growing brave

 

searching a way to be free.