Saturday, November 1, 2014

Jaded

JADED

The jaded tastes
             of a nation
                           his nation
             were in his mouth
and the soiled cloth
                           his nations cloth
           was on his skin
and the broken road
                           his nations road
        was below his feet
        and they had the nerve
               the sheer audacity
to call him
                  unpatriotic
           as he wandered his nation
searching for his nation
wanting to find his nation
              somewhere besides
              the first street flops
              or the triangle park
                  where old men lay
as if the next bus round
                  would unload their youth
but he walked on
                            and searched for his nation
for his nation in an alley
      his nation in a back room
                           a front room
                              any room
            even outside
where the tilted sidewalk
                          forced you to go
                                uphill
            and the nation
                                  hiding somewhere
                         by a pier
                         or an apartment complex
                 or a peace march
he walked on
                     searching for his nation
                            wanting to find it
being called an unpatriot
                    an unamerican
          a troublemaker
                        he asked the whores
                                       the old men
                                       the drunks
                                       the farmers
                                       the clerks
everybody seemed
                             to have lost their nation
                  for they all knew not
                        where it might be
                  so he hung his head
                  and found it
                         between his toes
                                 growing green
                  and spring sweet
and yes,

                  slightly trampled.

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