The flags are still,

Limp against the white pole

In the center of the fading grass that

No one has thought to paint in some time.

And the mayor says

He has no money for such indulgences

As fresh white paint

And the people in the town, now jobless

Lack the inclination, and those that do

Eye the pole as some final destination

For their hapless, troubled lives.

So no one lets the weaklings climb to

Have their final say or write some editorial

In guts and blood that the mayor could

Not clean anyway, given that the budget

For the trash collectors went the way

Of that of the pole painters and the gardeners

And the coroner’s department down at the PD.

Across the square, you can see the black towers

Of the plant that employed my grandfather

And his sons, and when it became meet and right so to do

His daughters too, but now it is closed down,

A haven for the homeless

Who collect their orts of brown meat from the back

Of Sam’s Club and roast it on the spits of their despair

But feasting on such luxuries, they can amuse themselves

Knowing there are now 500 new jobs in Mexico

And that the cotton fields in Egypt now provide

The threads for the shirts they can’t afford to wear

But-good news!- the executives who live

Behind the gates up on Snooky Hill

Have just found a new private school

For Troy and Buffy and LeMond to attend

That ensures they will get into Hahvahd

And Yale and Princeton when the time comes

For them to leave this seedy, trashy little town

In which town

From everywhere you can see the water tower

And the flag pole, the unpainted one,

Whose flag flaps sometimes in the wind and stirs

Someone to wonder

If it will ever be painted white again

08/11/2003

Author's Note: not into rants or heavy-handedness, usually..but then i read that Eastman Kodak is trimming its workforce dramtically and moving as much manufacturing operations from Rochester, NY to foreign countries ASAP...while Fuji Film, a Japanese company, is expanding its facilities in the Carolinas..and you tell me the world hasn't gone crazy?

Posted on 08/11/2003
Copyright © 2025 Ken Harnisch