A Flag is a Rag – 3 Sonnets in the Aftermath of Independence Day
SONNET I
You speak of “independence” on this day
as if you live a life of freedom won,
then fly your flag — a mere rag on display.
(You’re only “brave” when crouched behind your gun).
Self-righteously you point your finger at
those nations which you deem not to be free;
then run around the world — a bully fat
on plunder — reeking with hypocrisy.
In truth, you have no cause to celebrate.
You made yourself a slave to other things
which alter not one aspect of your fate
and you under its thumb and power brings.
Your “revolution” only made things worse.
The things you value now I find a curse.
SONNET II
The home of Fast Food, slick PR and spin —
obesity and crazy cults now thrive.
McCarthy missed the real foe within:
A power-elite who murder and connive.
Although no strangers occupy your land,
your own rampaging armies, banks and spooks
and corporations colonize the sand
and fields and funds of nation-states like crooks.
Your land itself, though pleasing to the soul,
became a bloody theaterwar of greed.
For from the ones who first were there you stole
that land and raped and massacred their seed.
True liberty cannot be built on bones,
nor independence grow in battle-zones.
SONNET III
Today you place your sword back in its sheath
and celebrate this holiday like clones,
without a thought of what lies underneath
or of your Senate’s real “game of thrones”.
I warn you if you look under the stone
with which your country’s covered all its tracks,
your blindered mind will by the sight be blown;
to all its plots you’ll no more turn your backs.
The time has come to stand out from the crowd
and not allow yourself to be beguiled.
There’s naught of which your country can be proud.
Its Independence Day has been defiled.
In time, this will be plain for all to see
and no more will you say, “Land of the Free”.
© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2021
[The copyright on my works is only to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]
The Naked Troubadour 