The Flag Bearer
And how it is never about the flags or symbols but something much deeper
Somebody has to be the flag bearer.
NO matter what flags he happens to be carrying.
It does not really matter.
Even if it is ridiculous, even if he is being a patsy, even if it makes no sense whatsoever.
Practically and metaphorically.
It is not even so much about flags and symbols or battles.
or whatever the theater of it happens to be at any given time in any given situation…
It is more about who this person is.
And he will seem crazy to most, and they will cheer him and grin at the grace that they don’t have to be that one.
And you will probably get shot.
And you will probably die.
And they might leave you with a statue or hymn or whatnot.
But this is not why you do it.
You don’t really know why you are doing it anyway.
And maybe it is time to cry out from those lifetimes.
You carried that flag for an infinite or ridiculous reason,
and then wondered, why in God’s name do you keep doing it?
And the answer is simple, as always:
It had nothing to do with who they are or why they did it or which flag was more moral or better or correct than the other.
It was just who you are.
It is the force that brings forth the leaves in the spring.
It is the force that gives birth to new life.
It is the orgasmic force of millions of little deaths that you have gone through.
It is the blissful face of a woman in orgasmic bliss.
It is the mountains that weathered the storm.
It is the cry of a thousand children yet waiting to be
born.
It is the waters of life breaking.
It is the history, his-story. Her story and all the stories interwoven in threads spun by norns.
It is the millions that have died and millions that are yet to be
born.
It is poetry.
It is LIFE.
It is war
It is peace.
It is the
calm and the
strife.
Why did you carry that flag, and will you always choose to carry it?
If you have to ask that question
You probably should not be carrying it.
So perhaps this time
the flag is the flag of peace;
as every idiot-in-chief on this broad, wide earth
starts another ridiculous stupid war.
A war that will make the poor poorer and the rich richer
the mad madder,
and will bring so much suffering…
that your heart breaks even thinking of it.
Maybe this flag is the flag of Consciousness.
Though Consciousness really has no flags, hymns, or territories.
So as you walk through all the hours of the night,
with your eyes on the Northern Star,
that is always shining bright..
Know that the LIGHT has birthed you, and you are coming, walking to and coming forth in LIGHT.
And may the eons of suffering of history, yours and collective….
Go gently,
and heal,
in the gentle embrace of the night.
As you give up your fight with words at the altar of poetry,
and let the Great Silence
take
flight.