black-lined banners sail on
red, white and blue
billows of fabric
furrow in haunting
silent union stitched
alliance glides
into the open, like kites
on a sky-blue parade
skims unyielding bronze
beacon, proudly clenching
grip on the annals of
History!
swirls as smoke from an incense stick
fetid or fragrant
coils round
echoes of torchlight and free hate
as hushed creed spills
darkening Charlottesville streets
exhumes a marching pulsation for
Nation!
a mottle of monuments, anthems, flags
beauty marks or boils
unearths rooted pockmarks
like the snaking behemoth gathers
apathy and harmony into its spawning
sharpens claws in Sainte-Foy, Squirrel Hill
Christchurch
beast of liberty
blinded by History’s markers
of Nation
blind to Nation’s markers
of History