History Revisited

History revisited
with a scar of bewilderment
in the brain.
I was absent when they taught national
necessity – Yes!
Still a kid
still beyond the touch of
heroic reason. Still
beautiful days, my games within
gently tilting, always, in the wrong direction –
how, wonderful
the muddy roads I built
under the blackberry tree, singing…
or yelling rather, my patriotic anthems – ahoy!
And here we go again, right now.
History aboard, and the mud with it.
My teachers, always somewhere beyond.
“Come along now”, they protrude. It’s time for
our gay, national, merry go round
How exciting. How long the muddy road
Under the blackberry tree,
into the foreman’s shed, just beyond the visible horizon of
Illusion.
Here we go, then.
One-two-three, march.
The 25th. Run!
It’s time for me to recite my usual poem.
“My country’s flag, has the colour of the sea”.
The direction of a line which always seems straight, and yet…
Oh, yes. I remember.
It took a long time to get there.
I turned, I fell, I wept, I wondered, I found, I kept
Going
Nowhere!