A Few Stripes and Five Pointed Stars
by Steven Craig
What is the flag?
Our flag?
Merely a few scrapes of colored cloth so assembled to form a pattern.
And that is all.
But then, what is a word?
Merely a few oddly formed symbols so assembled to
form a pattern.
But the pattern is recognized as a feeling, a thought,
a special place, a face, and so it is with our flag.
Flag is a four letter word.
And so is love.
Free is a four letter word,
and so is hope,
and there is a thread of each in our flag.
And in it too,
are woven the threads of a people,
and their dreams,
a way of life and a tomorrow,
a free choice of ideas,
and a thread of you, too.
The Flag is not just the few strips
And some five pointed stars.
The Flag is the will, the power, the love of a people.
The Flag is the legacy of those who envisioned a nations worth.
The Flag is the soul of those who raise it tomorrow.
The Flag is the touch of the new born caressing destiny.
This is what those scrapes of cloth mean to all
who call themselves Americans.
The Flag can never be destroyed and forgotten when it is hauled down,
or when its burnt fragments are beaten into the ground and brushed away.
For the Flag is not that simple.
The Flag flies solely because it has a meaning
And as with all thoughts,
The Flag can never be destroyed.
06/23/2006
