The Poet’s Corner – Allegiance

I stand for the allegiance
Of my country and for man.
I stand for life’s diversity
Which lends a surer-hand.
For the love that lives in each of us
For the promise: why we are.
My country feels divided
Yet, over time, we’ve come so far.

I stand for the allegiance:
My flag sewn with freedom rings;
To show a world there’s more to life
Than what the smaller deems.
I stand because I’m worthy.
I stand for you, the same.
I stand for all who walk their line.
I stand, sometimes in shame.

And so I ask, is standing
In shame the right thing too?
Aren’t we all united in how we
Wave red, white and blue?
Not all are free, as we might think
Some bound by history
In a nation full of love, and yet…
We enslave such misery.

If patriotic statements
Are what you need to share;
Please, kneel down in your reverence:
Make us all aware.
Help us start the dialogue
To heal a nation, wide;
Don’t listen to the Demagogue
He’s Dr. Jekyll’s, Hyde.

First Amendment stands, salute;
Reminding all is good;
To speak from what lies deep within:
Insisting that we should.
To wave the flag with your own truth;
Let its stars shine bright.
For when it seems the darkest
‘Tis when we see dawn’s early light.

America, the melting pot:
Every color known to man;
Language spoke in different ways;
Divinity, the plan.
Standing side by side we sing
Words written long ago,
That doesn’t mean we must agree–
It means we must bestow…

Truths heard in our forefathers’ voice;
Brave hearts which came before;
Their lives put down for freedom:
Should shake us to our core.
And so I say this once to you,
Standing or at rest:
It’s that we speak out to our truth
That makes ‘merica its best.

About Robin Clark (62 Articles)
Robin, born in Talent Oregon, now resides in Bellevue, a community outside of Seattle Washington. She is a published poet, OP-ED writer and Children's story author. She is currently in partnership with a composer who has asked her to write the book for his next musical. She is also being courted by assorted Directors to write a stage play and her dream is to leave a legacy in words, where you come to realize anything is possible.