If you
Want to show
Your love
For America
Love
Americans
Smile
When you see
One
Flowerlike
His
Turban
Rosepink.
Rejoice
At the
Eagle feather
In a grandfather’s
Braid.
If a sister
Bus rider’s hair
Is
Especially
Nappy
A miracle
In itself
Praise it.
How can there be
Homeless
In a land
So crammed
With houses
&
Young children
Sold
As sex snacks
Causing our thoughts
To flinch &
Snag?
Love your country
By loving
Americans.
Love Americans.
Salute the soul
& the body
Of who we
Spectacularly &
Sometimes
Pitifully are.
Love us. We are
The flag.
…
From her 2003 poetry collection, “Absolute Faith in the Goodness of the Earth”