Patriot?

Red for innocent blood,

White for false purity,

Blue for betrayal.

Did I interpret your actions correctly?

It sounds funny to write to the government.

A single word that sparks

Pride

Anger

Dread…

It shouldn’t be funny.

I should feel no prouder than I do today.

Can you read my words through your tinted windows?

No worries -

I’ve been told my voice carries.

It’s a good thing, given how

unfortunately dense

your office walls are.

Even better, since

No one cares properly about the public anymore.

No one but you, of course.

I’m honored to know my words are

reaching

you.

After all, you promised to serve your citizens.

Your oath of fourteen to eighty, maybe fifty-one words

used ink for blood, money for trust.

I feel its thread across state borders,

scribbling over the poor,

circling the unhoused, and oh so valiantly

erasing

the immigrants.

This is the dream.

Underneath our towering flag and your golden statues that gleam

far

above

my grasp,

I should feel no prouder than I do today.

I am at your feet, beside family and

strangers,

breathing the dust of destruction that

trails calmly

in your wake.

You tell us it is oxygen - what relief.

You have made the history books, that is certain.

Here at this momentous time.

Children and grandchildren and more will know your names -

Names I have lived beneath -

passed like wildfire at dusk.

Bright, burning, ruthless.

The flames of your power cover the

rusted buckets

beside the forest’s lake;

the handle is too hot to use.

We are told to cheer.

We cheer.

The future growls and twists, a dangerous storm that

glows with bullets and corpses,

spikes with censorship and oppression.

The inside - the true future - is unclear.

As usual, it hides.

I was hoping you could decode it for me.

You are the ones in power, and I have been told that you listen.

If not,

If this future comes,

I should feel no prouder than I do today,

for my pride is measured,

and in time it ends.