Oh, say, can you see?

 

This tale may signify nothing,

it has no real sound nor fury,

it’s merely about a flag,

once planted.

I had found a light blue T-shirt

lying on the ground,

and with an idle thought

tied it with some twine

onto a dried length of cane from my yard,

about twenty feet.

I went back to Central Middle School

and drove the end of the cane pole down

into the pile of woodchips in the garden,

not to stake any claim,

but because the garden

seemed to want a flag.

The T-shirt flew

in the wind on windy days -

flapping, billowing, fluttering -

and the T-shirt rested quietly

when the wind was absent.

In time the cane

rotted off at the base

and I drove down the remaining flag pole

down into the compost pile again,

just a few feet shorter.

I watched the flag flying

or resting

over the days and months.

Each time the flag of sorts fell over

I drove the cane down

until the end of the pole did meet the solid earth,

the wood chip pile holding upright

the slowly fading flag aloft.

And then, there came a day

when there was not much length of cane

left to drive.

And so I wedged the remaining pole

in a nearby wire arbor on which squash

or other vining vegetables might gain support.

And so the flag still flew

when the wind blew

and it rested when the wind

was absent.

For one month,

then another,

and then many more months,

until that simple

T-shirt flag had flown

in the Central garden for more than a year.

And now it is the winter solstice

and as the earth tilts once more 

towards the sun, I must ask:

Oh say, can you see,

by the dawn’s early light,

or by the afternoon sun’s bright shining,

or even by twilight’s last gleaming,

or perhaps just barely in the dark night

when no students were watching,

if my faded blue flag was still there?

I only ask this question

because I still wonder

if we are indeed the home of the free and the brave.

But for now, in my own homely neighborhood, at least,

yet still this old banner doth wave,

at least signifying that flags wave in the wind

and they rest when the wind is absent.

And signifying,  just perhaps,

that we ourselves  might indeed be steadfast

and hold the freedom of our children

ever more dear.

~ 30 sec flag video