A Declamation by Stan Raines

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United State of America
and to the people and co-signers
for whose constitution it stands
to which I do subscribe-
Battered old whore as she is
in and out of bed with slavers and churchmen,
taking in nine elder opinions for a quick feel;
yes, shrunken old Eunuch as it sits
beaten and buggered by barons and midgets,
yet still all the protector we have-
of thee I sing

to the people
landed on these bloodied shores
which they called virgin
whose rape they then commenced,
pushing aside all who would destroy the view,
ingenious people invading every corner in its turn
putting old worlds on young bodies-
till they’ve grown enough to soldier
and the cost of the task became plain-
whose children ignore with all their might
the ancient owners of the lands
yet delight in the ghosts
of stories that engulf them,
polished into as ornate a statuary
as ever graced the temples of old,
for you we bleed

in the wars of incorporation
ranging an entire globe
carving out this or that fiefdom
for whose amber waves and digital purity
no clear license has yet been extracted
by slick-footed K Street boys,
by goat-footed empire boys,
who labor at it nonetheless
to unearth enough original owners
to wrap fingers around another broken pen
and draw off one more X on the spot,
to you we cry

for the wisdom of a day long past
when men and women knew the name
of their fate and could see more than the
smiling face directic traffic and goods
and arcs of tender, loving firepower
come to set them free to take time
with their homes and ancestors
for whom we mourn.

Amen