a roughish draft

I pledge alligience to the flag
of the United States of America

and to the Republic
for which it stands

One nation under God
indivisable
and with justice for all.


having said this pledge the other day
in an old good smelling building
with a group of noisy beautiful women
who forgot to put the flag out to pledge to
thoughts and images enveloped me

I thought of the innocent heart
and the small hand placed over it
I thought of the child mind
struggling to memorize her first lines
I thought of her, chilled to the bone
from the bicycle ride to school with her big brother
I thought of myself learning to believe

each word, even the long then-unpronouncable ones
indelible on my mind, emblazoned as the closest
thing to prayer our family ever got, though
I did add a line, Please God let me come out on top

Larabee is like Avalon, long ago receding into memory
of tall dark and shaggy Redwoods, buzzards lined up on the fence
riding the saddle in the barn on the rafter
dreaming my own horse into existance, dreaming

by the time I was thirteen or fourteen
I was saying things like
ackah bawka aggg
onanamonapea, iggly Biggly bach
olly olly auction ya ya yah
...and justice for all...
because I needed more mercy than justice

LPC/16Nov07