if your vicious words were to cut me
to pierce the skin that so delicately enfolds my being
it would not be red, white, and blue that poured from my veins
yet, as my life seeped into the soil, the stark reality would become clearer still
that the blood that i shed runs just as it does from my neighbor
it runs red
thick, with pride and fear
and voluminously, with generosity and abundance
it runs over all of the hills we were told we could not climb
across all of the pitfalls that you conjured to stop us
but we never faltered,
only stumbled a time or two
we slipped, rose again, battered and bruised
found strength in the ones who saw the need to fight as we did
who yet see the need to fight as we do…
our greatness cannot be stripped by an onslaught
not by a war of a thousand years
for you always seem to forget this one simple thing - we were not on this earth when this battle began
just as we will not be when it comes to an end
soon, you will see the wickedness that you have birthed
feel the unerring panic as the vitality that you have wrenched from us rises, and smothers the hatred that festers in your soul
there can be no fear like this
like the certainty that, no matter your resolve, you will be overcome by the sacrifices that we have chosen to make
the sacrifices that we make in honor of all who have stood beside the tricolored banner even when the path was not clear
these colors will take on new meaning in the wake of this struggle
blue for the sorrow that comes when violence triumphs over reason
red for the anguish that steeps in misunderstanding
white for the innocence of the generations who will carry the standard for scores to come
take your aim at this land
where every man born breathes first his rights, and then his allegiance
and you will find not a force of this realm to defeat those who have pledged their days and nights
in defense of the stars and stripes
