April 10, 2006 (New York City)

by Steve Bloom
Green Party of New York State

Sometimes politics proves to be
as strange as poetry.

Never thought that I would feel
at home in a demonstration
where one American flag
follows another,
after another,
after another.

But today itís not the usual “my
country can beat up your country” crowd.
No, this time itís the invisible people,
speaking out loud for a change.

“I am Haitian;
I am Korean;
I am Pakistani,”
they tell me.

“I am Dominican;
I am Mexicana;
I am Filipino;
I am Ethiopian;
I am Jamaican;
I am Guatemalan and
I live here too.
I will not be less of a human being than you.

“I fly the flag of my country.
And I fly the flag of my other country;
for whether I am there or here
your nation would collapse
without the work I do.”

So I stand here watching, ask myself
whether we have, perhaps, just taken
one small step toward the day
when every human being
will, at last, fly every flag
of every nation
and still feel at home.