Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Citizenship

It may be laid down, as a primary position . . . that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it... 

― George Washington

“As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State 'What does it matter to me?' the State may be given up for lost.” 

― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

"If I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it; for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident" 

― Charles de Montesquie

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Midweek Motif ~ Citizenship

What is its purpose and its rituals?  Is it in the taxes we pay or the flags we fly?  Is it in the ideals we hold standing side by side?  Is it in our borders and who is in or out?  Just what is citizenship all about?  

Where and how are we each citizens?

(The recent Federal Tax Day in the USA 
raised these questions for me.)  

Your Challenge: Write a new poem that answers one or all of these questions with images of citizenship.

Poems:

Immigrant Picnic

BY GREGORY DJANIKIAN

It's the Fourth of July, the flags

are painting the town,

the plastic forks and knives

are laid out like a parade.

And I'm grilling, I've got my apron,

I've got potato salad, macaroni, relish,

I've got a hat shaped   

like the state of Pennsylvania.

I ask my father what's his pleasure

and he says, "Hot dog, medium rare,"

and then, "Hamburger, sure,   

what's the big difference,"   

as if he's really asking.

I put on hamburgers and hot dogs,   

slice up the sour pickles and Bermudas,

uncap the condiments. The paper napkins   

are fluttering away like lost messages.

"You're running around," my mother says,   

"like a chicken with its head loose."

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE at the Poetry Foundation.)

If in America

BY ED BOK LEE

Hmong Hunter Charged with 6 Murders

Is Said to Be a Shaman —new york times

If a tree falls in a forest,

does it make a sound?

If a rifle fires a shot in the woods,

whose body first hits the ground?

If a group of angry hunters

surrounds, curses at, and accosts you

for wandering onto their land

If you apologize for being lost,

inform you saw no posted signs, swallow

their chinks this and gooks taking over that;

are walking away over mud and fallen leaves when a loud

crack far behind you kicks up black earth

If your father was conscripted to fight

on the side of the United States

for the cia during the war in Vietnam

If he, your mother, you—the oldest son—

and all your younger siblings were later abandoned

in the hills of Laos as targets for genocide by the Viet Cong

If after five years in a Thai refugee camp,

you come to this land as a teen, a casualty

of history and time, then receive three years

of training to become a sharpshooter

in the u.s. military

If you spent your adolescence watching blacks,

Asians, Latinos, and whites watching one

another watch each other for weakness and flaws

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE at the Poetry Foundation.)

from The People, Yes

BY CARL SANDBURG

Lincoln?

He was a mystery in smoke and flags

Saying yes to the smoke, yes to the flags,

Yes to the paradoxes of democracy,

Yes to the hopes of government

Of the people by the people for the people,

No to debauchery of the public mind,

No to personal malice nursed and fed,

Yes to the Constitution when a help,

No to the Constitution when a hindrance

Yes to man as a struggler amid illusions,

Each man fated to answer for himself:

Which of the faiths and illusions of mankind

Must I choose for my own sustaining light

To bring me beyond the present wilderness?

       Lincoln? Was he a poet?

       And did he write verses?

“I have not willingly planted a thorn

       in any man’s bosom.”

I shall do nothing through malice: what

       I deal with is too vast for malice.”

Death was in the air.

So was birth.

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Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others 

in the spirit of the community.

 (Next week Sumana's Midweek Motif will be ~ Home)

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