That Flag You’re Flying Tells Me All I Need to Know about You

You, my friend,
are on the wrong side
of history
and someday,
years from now,
they’ll write about you
like they’ve written about
your kind before.
They’ll include photos
of your red hats,
and your fandom flags.
They’ll roll clips
of the playground bully,
the fakes and fools,
your lockstep hate,
the idolatry and rhetoric
that set the fate of your country
— and your offspring —
at the edge of a wild precipice.
They’ll speculate
at the types of personalities
who were more easily duped,
who followed out of fear
or inferiority,
weak mindedness or
— worse —
some base interpretation of god,
and they’ll make comparisons
to the evil we used to read in books,
the ones our families fought wars for,
and they’ll shake their heads,
scorn your poor decisions,
scorn you and
the long, sad wake of your ignorance.

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©2024 Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.