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Poetry Index

Out of My Skin
Monarch
A Matter of Scale

Heat Wave
Poet and Pet
Awakening
Rebirth

A Reasonable Life

Snapshots 2006
Haikus
Hush and Listen
Faces
Lizard Thoughts
Thunder
White Rose
Mother of the World
Finally

Poems 2005 —
Passion & Discontent
Absence
Blind
Dance
Dry
The Wake of Disaster

Evening
Mama's Tears
Nude
Old Furniture
Pertoglyphs

Rest
Saved
Sounds of an Empty Promise
Entertainment
Sycamores
Three Quarters
Vientos del Mediterráneo
Weavings

Battle
Giving In

Poems 2004
The Dissappearance of Lao Tsu
Nameless Beauty
Commuting
Memory Game
Every Little Thing Counts
Landscapes of Yo Yo Ma's Brazil
Miles (to Miles Davis)
The Colors of Piazzolla's Tango

War and Peace
Making Friends
Old Glory
Kabul Update
Take Heart
March Madness

Poems 2003
Johnny Cash
Between Heartbeats
"Naked Poetry"
Sunflower Sonnet No. 1.5

New York City
My NYC is not your NYC
SanitationWorker, NYC
Gentrification
Passing By
Belly-button Renaissance
West Chelsea

Poems 2002
Crisis
Finding Each Other
Kindred Spirits
Meteor
To Our Youth
At Sunset
Questions
Hollyhock
Holland in Winter

On Society
Mirrors
McKinney X-Tex
Lady Liberty
Making Friends
Old Glory
Walking

Life's Lessons
Child's Life
Crashing Surf
In Search of the Unknown
Love at First Sight
Holding Hands
Grandpa's Tools

Musings
First Snow
Impressionism
Anonymous
Downcast Eyes
Sagrada Familia

In France
French Gardens
Air Show
Cell Phones 01-04

Churches
Lovers in the Castle


 

 

 

 

Old Glory
(six weeks after 9-11-01)


The proud banner still hangs
neglected now
unnoticed
after the initial shock
and grief
and pride
mixed
with feelings of helplessness.

Its vivid colors,
drab and dusty
weathered
like summer's umbrella
left out
beyond the days of sunshine
and morning coffee outdoors.

Autumn leaves
and Halloween
adorn suburban lawns
the flag
now hanging
with plastic spiderwebs
and cutout spooks
and goblins.

The neighbors have forgotten
the dignified emblem
on the radio antenna
of their car
flying torn
and battered
its ribboned shreds
chattering
as they drive to the mall.

Pick-up trucks and fire engines
still brandish
their huge
Stars and Stripes
charging to work
like cavalry soldiers
leading their company
into battle.

The USA
will have
a red, white, and blue
Christmas
as holiday parades
resemble the Fourth of July
with Santa
in his patriotic
T-shirt
and religious pageants
echo
ringing political appeals.

American mom's and dad's
struggle
with choices
of toys
to buy
so as not to glorify
violence
while other parents
with bombs falling in the night
try to protect
their children
from crumbling homes
freezing winter winds
hunger
and the noise of war.

October 20, 2001
© 2001 Richard Sidy

 

© 2002 SNS Press
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