Anthem

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light

mothers counting empty beds, oh, how they weep, take to the streets where their children sleep in pooling crimson seas

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?

tiki torches blazing, raised stiff hands salute, ‘all hail’, exposed white faces spitting bile would smite true patriots who bend a knee

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

those who dare, rise in humility, to challenge twisted liberty, lay prostrate at the mercy of the courts for fans to see,

O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

throngs clamoring at the gates, fleeing terror, death and hate, hoping they are not too late, but freedom is not free

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

blinding smoke bombards the moat where orphaned children flail and choke, acid tears now streaming down their cheeks

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

barely recognizable, flaunted proudly, all for show, allegiance pledged as madness grows, this bitter fruit we sowed to reap

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

with nothing left to show but our disdain for truth, our love of lies, all this is proof that we have squandered our humanity

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

cowards all, ignoring the call, from our tongues deadly poison falls, scorching the ground from shining to the rising seas

~kat

For NaPoWriMo 2019 Prompt #22:  write a poem that engages with another art form – it might be about a friend of yours who paints or sculpts, your high school struggles with learning to play the French horn, or a wonderful painting, film, or piece of music you’ve experienced – anything is in bounds here, so long as it uses the poem to express something about another form of art.