Flags! - Live

Down here, we still hoist that old flag, watch it twist and flap in
The wind
The way it did over the smacking lips and cracking whips of white men
Selling black men
Their sons carried it into battle, and died for it, from Gettysburg to Louisiana
For the right to be buried in their own separate cemeteries
Underneath that star-spangled banner

Senior year, you could go deaf from all the talk of terrorists and
Muslim fundamentalists
And I thought it strange in a town where so-called believers blew
Up women’s clinics we had the gall to act so offended
And when it would come time to say the Pledge in class, I would sit
My ass down at that desk
And the only words of it I said were “under God.” I figured we were
Beyond the help of anybody else

Flags!
Flags!
Flags!

Granddaddy unfolds it like a flower after the Lord’s Prayer, humble
And quiet and still
While the dew still lies on the grass, while the sun hides beyond
The old steel mill
And I place my hand over my little heart, and he holds the salute
He held overseas
And, looking up into his shining eyes, I behold a glory that I
Cannot see

Flags!
Like a drop…
Flags!
…in a bucket!
Flags!
Like dust…
Flags!
…on a scale!
Flags!
Insufficient!
Flags!
All of y’all’s nations!
Flags!
All of y’all’s flags!