There will come a day

(and it won’t be long now)

when the mandible-mouthed liars cease their death song,

and ivy grows over the bunkers of the Bank Boys,

and the cannons all sprout mushrooms,

and fireflies fill the air once more.

When that day comes,

we will lower the flag of the marching machine

(once used as wrapping paper for dead teenagers with rifles,

once hung over buildings full of men with red eyes,

once emblazoned upon flying robots that rained fire),

and we will raise our true flag at long last.

It will be woven from the prayers of our grandmothers

who will never see it raised but knew one day it would be.

It will be dyed in the blood of the media martyrs

who stared the Bastards in the eye and sang life songs.

It will have a traditional image of Michael the Archangel,

except instead of him stepping on the Devil

they are laughing together over a drink at the pub

while a man with a pipe looks on and smiles.

It will be based on a drawing made in crayon long ago

by a chain-smoking dryad who lurks in your brain pan.

We will all salute it in our own unique way:

with fart jokes and whale songs,

with unearthly ululations,

with runed glossolalia,

with lightning from our fingertips,

with air guitar karate,

with lava dance lovemaking,

with a single tear from someone who still misses you,

with an uplifting of the heart toward the sky.

And then we’ll all curl up together

and we’ll sleep unafraid

for the very first time,

and we will dream of the ones

who helped walk us home.

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