Pledge - Alfred Lamotte

[Lawrence Robinson]

Pledge 

Today is Independence Day. 
Tomorrow will also be Independence Day. 
I wave the banner of the present moment.
I pledge allegiance to no flag, no nation. 
I pledge allegiance to no tribe or party.
I pledge allegiance to no bombs bursting in air.
I pledge allegiance to silence and a day of prayer.
Patriotism is rebellion. 
Rebellion is joy.
Cast down the mighty, the masters of war.
I pledge allegiance to the poor.
I pledge allegiance to the boy I used to be. 
The girl you were, the boy in the girl and the girl in the
boy before wholeness was shattered by
our education.
I pledge allegiance to hemp and sod.
I pledge allegiance to the unnamed God,
to the moon and the tide, to sun and
wind and what I cannot know,
to a light that contains all colors, to the rainbow.
I pledge allegiance to no belief
but an heirloom tomato seed,
a living coral reef,
the wisdom in a weed.
when the fireworks last too long after
midnight and sulfur lingers in the air.
I pledge allegiance to the huddled deer,
the stray dog in the street, 
the shivering sparrow in a bush,
the veteran cringing in the heat of his
most ancient fear.
I don't need more bombs.
I need to hear the gentle bursting of
peonies in my garden.
To notice the sun set here as it rises over Gaza.
To greet who ever I see with a breath of peace.
They don't even need to know,
something in my chest will melt away the
borders of every nation.
Now take off your shoes.
Go slow.
Don't burn the flag.
Unravel its thread.
We hunger for a common bread.
With all my relations gathered at birth,
I pledge allegiance to the earth,
the infant curled in mother's sea of
trust.
I pledge allegiance to the dust. 
To all winged and swimming things, to creatures
that crawl or come out at night.
Brothers, sisters, four-legged and two,
I pledge allegiance
to you.
I pledge allegiance
to you.

	- Alfred Lamotte
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