Thursday, October 29, 2009

Flag

29 October 2009

inspired by The Weekend Wordsmith

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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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George MacDonald

"Home is ever so far away in the palm of your hand, and how to get there it is of no use to tell you. But you will get there; you must get there; you have to get there. Everybody who is not at home, has to go home."

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