Courage

In the afternoon I left a skeleton of myself
propped against the flagpole
they played an anthem
I sang no song
There was nothing to hear but the silence of breath
between the chorus of the aged cassette
and the flag, red, blue and white
creeping up the pole, limp
beggard by the voices unraised
I wondered
had my courage failed me
to stand against this strange unresponsive tide
of the masses that cared little
and then I realized I had changed within
over a month, an odd unsettling whim
to stand objective to all groups
and view them not as the entirety of a story
but the particles of their not being...
for a nation is held by belief
and when the voices are silent as they have been
even when they are free to be raised as wished
then the glues have unstuck
and the decay begins.