Symbol of a Nation
What it almost stands for is
language without nationhood
culture without nationalism
identity without nationality
a non-nation steeped in history
like a sheep in septic water
and going down like a stateless ship
for the lack of
a flag
its people in thrall
to the understated beauty
of the machair, hedonists
of rare days of sunsky,
donors of red earth
(bums who didn’t have a mindset around productivity,
market-driven only in the most literal sense)
and losing their tongue as they go down
singing, showing the way forward,
as they survive, to a future
that will be flag-mad and transaction-packed,
that will have big bright flags to act as gags
hand on heart, I have no wish
to salute any flag
rather will I quote Jandl:
there’s a fleck on the flag
and rather will I salute
(see Prévert) the bloodied fox,
escaped from the trap,
in the snow,
dragging itself forward,
on three legs
Page(s) 113
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The