SHUT

SHUT

make
America
great again

send in
the Pied Pipers
with tear gas
and pistols

and pepper balls
too strong for tacos

shepherd, corall,
light
     the big bonfire
square the
circle

make the flag big
exceptional, exponential,
bigger and bigger
stick it up
on a pole
tall as
an ICBM or
at least
puny cruise missile

expanding, contracting,
what need
      Monroe, Donroe
doctrine
when flag shroud
swathes the planet

no more
    talk of inside or outside
Rams, Patriots, Broncos,
Seahawks
   there can,
must
  be only one:
undisputed world champions
ball in
     the endzone, ball
always next to your desk

and
   in the meanwhile, as
the spotlights
    turn
on
themselves, do morph
into searchlights

stars
   on the flag eclipsing
the real
stars
  themselves

no sense asking
where the pipers
took us
what did
with our children

was the
    suicide of grace, assassination
of elegance

took
  us to this place
gate
    closed, locks snapped shut