the American Flag Shirt
by Charles Bukowski
now more and more
all these people running around
wearing the American Flag Shirt
and it was more or less once assumed
(I think but I’m not sure)
that wearing an A.F.S. meant to
say you were pissing on
it
but now
they keep making them
and everybody keeps buying them
and wearing them
and the faces are just like
the American Flag Shirt–
this one has this face and that shirt
that one has that shirt and this face–
and somebody’s spending money
and somebody’s making money
and as the patriots become
more and more fashionable
it’ll be nice
when everybody looks around
and finds that they are all patriots now
and therefore
who is there left to
persecute
except their
children?
And I'm using the Flag Topic to sneak in a gratuitus John Prine video:
Lyrics HERE.
Do you know what year he wrote this poem? I saw that the collection of poems are from 1951 - 1993.
ReplyDeleteIf this were written today, it would be about cars driving around with big, ol' American flags blowing in the breeze.
It was from a book published posthumously, so I don't have a way to look it up.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how flag clothing changed from The Supreme Insult- Abbie Hoffman was dragged away in handcuffs for wearing that shirt- to a display of misty-eyed patriotism.
... or is it more marketing than it is patriotism..?
ReplyDelete