'Flags' Memory's dirge' 'In Memory II' and 'In Memory'

'Flags' timothy r gates, 5/28/2012


Veterans wear them
patches on chests - biceps
Hippies wore them
Pants - shirts - capes
burned holes in the stars.
shared in common,
Flags
always mean something.

Way too many wear them
shoes - shirts - jackets
tattoos with Eagle's expanded wings
not new
but on your ass?
Flag burners
believe they should matter.
Flag wearers
merely are gaudy.

'Memory's dirge' timothy r gates, 5/28/2012

how's a war protesting
MLK - Malcolm X - Gandhi - Mother Teresa
Lover
two fingers in the air
mixed with a fist or one finger
peace love and together
Flag wearing - hole burning
pharmaceutical supplies
tie-dyed jean wearing
CSN&Y - Hendrix - Dylan - Janis
Loving
eighteen year old
Jesus Freak
fill up overflowing
heaven's bottles,
tears both sad and happy?
Memory eternal -
I begin to join the dirge
recalling one thing that doesn't die:
Love.
Here we sing together -
and I say,
"Thank you."

'In memory. II' timothy r gates, 5/27/2012

In memory of the fallen
dead
Soldiers obeying orders
shooting at mother's children
Soldiers obeying orders
Fallen asleep -
dead.
We weep
lost daughters and sons -
then there are the ones
in the way of the bullets
also mother's sons and daughters
not quick enough
also fallen
dead -
Flags need flown for them too.
Pray that our funeral dirges
will be buried -
our memory of the fallen
will die.

'In memory' timothy r gates, 5/26/2012

Mommy and Elizabeth played
John leaped - before you knew it -
telling his mother "I'm ready!"
not much more than a year
they played on the Mt
serpents even smiled watching their hocus pocus
- before you knew it - Jesus wept
head on a platter for a king
head hanging giving queens pause
Mommy and Elizabeth broken
hearts pierced
"Our boys!"
Elijah and Yeshuah,
Word in Angel's flight
Their tears overflowing heaven's bottles
turning sorrow into wine.
Mothers and Sons

stroll in the Garden's dew swept dawn.