Someone Please Help Me Understand

Someone Please Help Me Understand
Trudi L. Perkins, Copyright © 2005


Someone please help me understand
How a woman like me can both love and hate the same land
How I can be proud of the Black soldiers in arms
And at the same time know that among others,
It is themselves that they will harm.

Someone please help me understand
Why my heart cannot always lift as high as my head
When I view those spangled colors of White, Blue and Red
And did I say White?
Yeah… That’s been said.

Someone please help me understand
Just what patriotism means for a woman like me
Does it mean that I should just let it all be?
Does it mean that I should simply bow my head
And disregard all the innocent blood that flows in red?

I get the feeling that patriotism means more than casting a vote
Or else, why would the outcome always seem so remote?
I get the feeling that patriotism is more than a choice
Leaving things to the powers that be, only seems to silence my voice.
I get the feeling that the power should lie with me.
But, I wonder…if I speak too loudly, would they simply shoot me?

Silence gives consent
And a dissenting voice breeds resent
But I still often wonder-
What does this flag really represent?

When will we as a people again take a stand?
And say, no more, to the destruction of our own ancestral land?
When you have been stripped of your family ties
And what exists is based on lies, I ask you-
Where, pray tell should your allegiance apply?