Photo of Jasper Johns’ Flag by John Wisniewski

A Nation Is

a maze an alley end
closet boarded up
dumpster chapel schoolroom
kitchen of the pauper
field of poppies the inside
of a papal hat attic bellfree
grave bugle hole a missile core
open window a solitary cell
an aorta the chamber of revolvers
a bullet tv antennae laced up
boot the marrow in a bone
a mountain top a strip mine
the library shelf emptied
a table without
any chairs.