Anthem/250

O say, can you see

I can see.  We all can see.
What matters is not that we see
but what I, and too, we see.
Not with our face planted eyes,
but with those of the mind.
 
 
By the dawn’s early light

Dawn’s sleepy eyes
often don’t focus
as far down the road
as needs to be seen.

 
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight’s last gleaming

All hail a vision realized.
It gleams.

250 years ago, July 4 saw
a foresight of possibility
sited far into the future.
How now does our sight
fashion that farsighted gleam?
 
 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight

The flag’s most perilous fight, that pitting
blue against south, north against grey,
tested ideals and commitment.
Maybe not clear now which side won.
Yes, we’re still having that conversation.
We’re also still evolving.
What do we see?
 
 
O’er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming?

Broad stripes and bright stars have become
partisan, the symbols claimed
but the creator endowed rights envisioned
snubbed.

I reclaim those stars and stripes.
I reclaim those stars and stripes for that vision.
They are what I will see streaming
in every red, white and blue
bumpersticker, banner, bunting, and balloon.
 
 
And the rocket’s red glare,
The bombs bursting in air

All that light reflects off what’s so and so
this fourth’s fireworks seemed a specter
of the declaration’s promise,
cheap baubles masquerading, not celebrating.
Pretty.  Not proud.
Want proud again?
Picture that promise
met.
 
 
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.

The 50 states share space on a banner
with 13 colonies that began
an experiment
       based on self-evident truths and inalienable human rights,
an experience
       creating something the world had yet to see.

The experiment continues.
We are the experience.
 
 
O say does that star spangled banner yet wave

It’s all about yet, isn’t it?
yet still?
yet someday.

That flag still waves.  Its promised promise
unmet then,
unmet still.

Unmet until?
 
 
O’er the land of the free

Free means each can be the who created equal.
Equal means no special qualifications
not white
not male                                                                                                                                                            not straight
not Christian
not moneyed
not even US born.

And the home of the brave?

Insisting on equality when those around you say
“No Way!!”?

That’s brave.

 
The Anthem at 250

Never forget:
The anthem closes with a question.

As do I.

           O say, what do you see?       	

Artist’s statement

Watching fireworks this July 4 felt like a phony celebration. What’s happening on this milestone anniversary doesn’t match what I was taught and understand this country to be about. The anthem’s closing question provides the spark for this exploration.