We’ve Got To Communicate

Poetry

Watch a sports game, one for your favorite team, the team you’ve loved since you were five, the team that you aren’t a bandwagon fan of because you liked them before they were good; you liked them for as long as you can remember. And now imagine that you’re rooting for the opposing team.

Everything shifts. It so happens that you’re invigorated no matter which team has possession of the ball, puck, birdie, or lead.

It doesn't matter anymore which team happens to win, happens to fill the final minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run — either team will do, either team satisfies your admiration and enthusiasm.

Repeat the practice; you may get quite good at it. But whatever you do, don’t apply this practice to your country, my lovely Matriot; God forbid you start having no particular partisanship for America, Russia, or Israel— that you would be just as happy squatting on any old plot of land.

Manifest Destiny says our team is right, drunk or sober, right or wrong. You should respect the lines around our land that keep us protected from them.

Don’t think for yourself and don’t love without measure. Indeed, set a strict limit to your heart’s dimensions. Draw a trapezoid around your heart and if someone dares squirm within your borders, immediately deport them back whence they came!

O, say, can’t you see that things are best when hoarded to the brink of inconvenience? And the bombs bursting in air, gives proof for our glory!

Still not convinced? You still think there’s only one motherland that isn't limited by manmade lines?

Tsk-tsk. What would Benjamin Franklin say? You wouldn't want to make America’s favorite adulterer displeased would you?

Thank you for reading! © Daniel Barry, 2021

More from Daniel Barry