You want to call me animal
for the blood breeze blowing through me
every time I see you these days.
By all means, call me animal, say
this anger redefines me
as uncouth or unfit
for your society.
By all means, cast me out
again. It would not be
the first time or even the second
that you chose my role, made me
your choice of savage beast.
Faced with that again,
I feel ancient
abandon coming on.
Find myself suddenly indifferent
to your spell,
how you snap
your name, how
some snap to attention for it.
By all means, declare
that I am not under your
cover. Let me admit,
at last, to a lightness
in my step when I think
of all the generations before me
who did not see you as
a safe blanket. By all means
let me be the threat
beyond your edge. Let me
pick up the old tools
of the enemy’s trade
and recognize them
anew as my best defense.
By all means, let me go.
Let me be free of you,
your red, your white, your
blue. Too many good people
smothered under those colors.
Too many years I loved you
as if they were not
smothering me, too. By all means,
gasp in shock and call me
merciless, call me savage again. This time,
let it be true.