Someplace Else to Be

In the library today everybody stood
On intercom command to recite The Pledge
Our school ritual where whole classrooms
Come to attention like parade regiments
Collectively facing tiny flag poles
All aiming heavenward like missiles
The red white and blue waving to America
And to the republic for which it stands
But you and I just sat there in Periodicals
Like statues with their arms blown off
One nation under God
Our sentences fragmented
Your face puzzled by shell-shock
My ramblings a debris field of run-ons
With liberty and justice for all
Until everybody sat back down
Like soldiers in a mess hall
And it was time for the two of us to rise
For separate reasons
Since each of us had someplace else to be.

© 2006 Ron Watson

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