Scenes From A Citizenship Ceremony

The school auditorium had been transformed
into the State Supreme Court
a judge was perched like a blackbird
on the stage, his neatly pressed robe
hung from his shoulders like a cape

The future citizens of America
were gathered together in a long line
like soldiers awaiting their orders
they faced the inscrutable judge
their bodies tense with expectancy
like a congregation of connubial mourners
waiting anxiously at the gates of freedom

The judge asked them with a grave expression
on his imperturbable face to raise their right hands
and without hesitation their hands stood at attention
like a salute to some unseen general or commandant

The judge began his patriotic speech
with words that were not inviting
or welcoming but rather impossibly
intimidating and forbidding,
he did not speak of liberty
and justice for all,
instead he called for their unquestioning
obedience to the flag (and somewhere I could
faintly hear the drums of war rattling in the
air above these soon to be citizens)
their subjugation to the will of the executive
should they be called upon to eradicate
the enemy of the state both foreign and domestic,
to sacrifice their newly mandated citizenship
and lives for the safety and security of the autocracy

How irrefutably horrible, how grotesque and perverse
how dictatorial and supercilious- should not every American
be required to take this oath of self-sacrifice, of blind allegiance?
(I could see the flag hanging like a tattered old shirt on a clothesline)
How ironic that these newly formed citizens of these United States
should be asked during their initial moments as citizens
after having renounced any and all allegiance to their former
lands and governments, to offer up their throats to the ravenous
and salacious monster that is America,
to spill their foreign-born blood on foreign lands
in the name of gluttony, avarice and imperialism

As they uttered the words- “I do,”
the wedding ceremony was over
and these new brides were now ready
to consummate their marriage vows
to the insatiable American animal
that will now mount, feed and gorge itself
upon their virgin blood, sweat and tears- Amen!

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