stripes

the tattered stripes

limply hang from the pole

a billowing breeze rushes past

tangling it's stars and it's stripes

till it makes one big knot

it isn't till a gentle ephemeral breeze

gently knocks through

undoing the damage little by little

the rising sun illuminates the edge of pole

a bright new dawn that shines upon us

a new chance to amend the tatters

so the stripes can come together once more

united not apart