29 October 2009
inspired by The Weekend Wordsmith
photo courtesy of Moab Girl
I prefer a quilt to a flag--there’s room
for mixed loyalties, preference more complex
than blood and honor, courage and fifty-one stars.
Ambivalence wreaks havoc on those lines--
the unrelenting contrast a written-in-red-and-white-
stone patriotism which makes it difficult to think
beyond black and white.
The quilt was made by my mother. I watched her
stitch the pieces together on a military base
on foreign soil, where soldiers had died.
So did we all, for the sake of a mission,
nevermind the casualties at home.
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