fading flag

Dante de Jong, United States

part I.

the principal, with a voice

flat as sidewalk pavement

recites the pledge of allegiance

to a flag that hangs from the back wall

maroon, light grey, and whatever hue

the sky is, at the end of a dreary day

most don’t stand up anymore,

not since we learned we didn’t have to—

a right the constitution affords

this class of silent cynics.

a few students still stand

the sound of scraping chairs

is the only noise in our homeroom

as they turn to face that faded flag

hands to their hearts, eyes trained

how do they believe in one nation

under god, indivisible? do they see

a different flag? are the colors

brighter? does it matter that red

reminds of bloodshed, white

of the privilege taken for granted,

and blue, of a nation in sorrow?

the intercom crackles as the pledge ends

leaving us split between silence and allegiance

with the flag just hanging in there.

part II.

he principal, with a voice

flat as sidewalk pavement

recites the pledge of allegiance,

to a flag that hangs from the back wall

maroon, light grey, and whatever hue

the sky is, at the end of a dreary day

most don’t stand up anymore,

not since we learned we didn’t have to—

a right the constitution affords

this class of silent cynics

a few students still stand

the sound of scraping chairs

is the only noise in our homeroom

as they turn to face that faded flag

hands to their hearts, eyes trained

how do they believe in one nation

under god, indivisible? do they see

a different flag? are the colors

brighter? does it matter that red

reminds of bloodshed, white

of the privilege taken for granted,

and blue, of a nation in sorrow?

the intercom crackles as the pledge ends

leaving us split between silence and allegiance

with the flag just hanging in there.

Dante de Jong is a young poet and photographer from Boston, Massachusetts. An alumnus of Bard College's Young Writers Workshop, her work has previously been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and is published or forthcoming in Bridge Ink, Let's Say Gay, and Blue Marble Review, among others. When she isn't scribbling down poems in her notebook, she's scribbling them down in the margins of her algebra homework.