You Essay

You Essay

Freedom for the patriots,

soap for the clean
 
pokers and prodders,
wanters and yellers we
 
are not an orderly bunch.
It would be easier to
 
funnel your genomes through a
collander than to cal-
 
culate just what sort of
thing is a country
 
A fiction, a haystack of
gathered wishes, a false fish
 
The self-proclaimed spend their
days singing to a festive rag
 
worshipping a god that
no one can agree upon
 
collecting bumper stickers
proclaiming what they hate
 
I know you want to kill me;
the time will come soon enough

Michael J. Vaughn's twentieth novel, Figment, is now available in both digital and paperback forms at Amazon.com.