And That Face Has Given Me a Flag

And That Face Has Given Me a Flag!
And this flag, that I hve damned so longly,
This rag, and nothing more,
While death-mockracy raged and raved
And avenged its bloodthirst,
Over and over,
Since the inception of a nation,
With George and Mary and Martha
With nothing save civility
In drawingrooms and battlefields
Is justified by that gentle face,
Justifed, as being no longer a damnation
But the stuff of a citizenry, with that face,
And the mulatoo;s face,
Sad, overgrown Abe, with his doom
And his honesty...

Because now we are made human,
By that choice,
To elect a human
Who had a human who rose from poverty
To be slain unafraid.

How proud I am of the flag
I never had,
Of the society I spent decades;
Criminalizing and cursing...
And of all the possibilities inherent in innocence:

I say to you in awe and ardor
That now I am Anerican,
Now I pledge with fidelity
To be worthy:

For that is the face of my president
And this is my tattered flag!