Contemporary Poetry

OLD GLORY

Twenty feet in the air
Old Glory hung all year
On pole painted white
Red, white and blue, colors contrast bright.

It flipped and flopped when the wind blew
Billowed like canvas on a sailing sloop.
It hung motionless when the wind stopped
Against the flag-pole until another popped.

Thru summer, fall and winter, majestic it flew
Reminding all of the power and majesty it accrued
Over two centuries of traversing the earth
Before its bearers to bring peace to each fourth.

Hoisted to dedicate a nation conceived in liberty
A government of, by and for the people, no sovereignty.
Tested through time, adopted by new nations in birth
Democracy shall not perish from the face of the earth.

In numerous battles and wars the forerunner
Over caskets and bodies, mudded and blooded, a comforter
As if in its arms, not unlike a mother,
She would comfort the millions who died for her.

Through spring, summer and fall it fluttered
Until severe winter winds tattered
Its edges.  A new one I must run up with oratory
To maintain the symbolism and grandeur of Old Glory.

* * *

SPIRIT  OF  MAN

Indomitable spirit of man
Present it a plaque
Untamed, unfettered, free
Soar the world, windward and lee.
Autonomous, be morally justifiable
Tread not the path of the uncharitable,
Uphold the good fight of the masses
You are sovereign, eradicate destitute faces.

The poor of the world are numerous
Yet, dauntless, they persevere
If no one for them would give a care,
Conduct a requiem for the populous.
For what good is one superior
If superiority delineates no fervor?
Far better that it was shackled
Then relief to no one would be expected.

So, spirit of man, rise to the occasion
Immutable, scourge the land
Of manipulator and thief and vagabond
Of churl and rogue and curmudgeon.
And when the task is completed
And poverty and malfeasance annihilated,
Raise unto it a monument, give it a crown
For meritorious deeds of renown.