the flag has been absent for over a week

better now as there’s room

around the bare pole gulls fly

dropping feathers and shit and food

no one misses that scrap of red white and blue oppression

too precious to be soiled by common life

let someone put it away on their American altar

it has lost its promise for the rest of us

and only hangs a threat

crane balanced on one skeletal leg

atop the roof glistening in the rain

suddenly it spreads two metallic wings

rises with a harsh industrial warning

off to find its own destination

as the building abandoned stares after it

with empty windows and jagged girders

never to be completed