Star-Spangled
Until
2016, star spangled was just a description of a costume I would wear, dancing
in the streets with my sister in a Mardi Gras krewe, dancing with tequila and
jello shots,
Then
Merrick Garland filled my dance card, Obama setting us up, sending us out on
our first date. I still hold that
against him. Riding on the coattails of American Imperialism had worked just
fine my whole life, thank you very much
Though it
was those Republican senators who decided that 8 Supreme Court Justices was
enough. Who cares what the Constitution says? Wait, we care, we all care. No, 8
justices is justice enough.
Never mind
that sparkly Mardi Gras is a season, that cheap toxic beads become a currency
that can buy you love, a flash, a sip off a flask, a grind with a total
stranger;
moments
after the parade has passed, you are left with a dirty street and a hangover.
Injustice
lacks a start and an end, injustice is waking up again and again, the cottony
taste of regret in your mouth, the dry eye of anger, bile at the back of your
throat.
I was
brought up on princesses in fairytales, on knights in shining armor, white
horses and all. Happy endings, the in-laws always had enough money to bail out
my father’s latest scheme. White skin,
blue eyes, American dentistry.
Politicians
aren’t princes, and Air Force One isn’t a white horse
O say Jose Jesús Yohamed
Have you ever been the only white girl in a sea of dark
haired men? In a flood of no one who speaks your language, no one who looks
like you?
Jesús comes to the House of Representatives
each morning. The preacher calls him Jesus, thanks him and his daddy profusely.
“separation of church and state” much?
Here, put on my rose-colored glasses, we all need my rose
colored eyes
Can you see, by Dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
We’re in this together, fox hole lovers, no atheists in war.
We won’t tell you the truth and, the movie? The movie
doesn’t tell you the whole story.
You people only see what you want to see. You see a vet, you
think PTSD.
I’m not angry, I’m frustrated. You people want to throw
money away, you want to turn the whole state into a goddamn yuppy hippy hipster
liberal shithole that’s what you want to do, take our guns, ruin our children,
make the whole goddamn state like goddamn Portland, weak, pathetic
Whose broad stripes and bright stars
through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming
Streaming like scrappy Mexicans, across the border, wave
after wave,
criminals taking our jobs, raping our women, selling drugs
to our kids, wave after wave
rockets’ red glare, bombs bursting in air,
there was proof that our flag was still there;
Still there, just as we are, still here, fighting for
justice,
fighting for the best for people we don’t know, maybe don’t
want to know, turn away from them, cross the street from them, close the gate
on them
Jose, does the star-spangled banner still wave O'er the land of the free?
Free? Free from the long arm of government, biceps built
like an inmate’s who has nothing to do but pump iron, the inmate lifting the
same weight over and over, no thoughts in his head, bad thoughts in his head,
anger mellowed. Mostly.
and the home of the brave?
We are brave in so many ways. We speak up we speak out we bite
out tongues. We stand out we stand up we sit in. We are brave in so many ways.
Are we brave enough? Are we all brave enough?
We put our hands over our hearts, I put my hand over my
heart.
“With liberty and justice for all,” my sign said.
“’Justice for all’? Who’s that for? What’s that about?” The
veteran asks me from his well worn wheelchair after the 4th of July
parade. He doesn’t say, “those damn immigrants” he doesn’t talk about the
wall. I am finding my way, finding my
voice, and I meekly proudly cowardly tell him just that they are the last six
words of the Pledge of Allegiance.
When we take away the United States, take away the republic,
take away that we are one nation, that we are under God, that we are indivisible,
we can no longer see liberty and justice for all.
