It cast a line that became more like a path,

whether words of pain or wrath

could become

Beautiful Monsters of sights unseen

but in the mind of one.

I saw green of grass

and white of mass

but poetry to me

was the red white and blue

of the flag.

For America the Beautiful

and the Star Spangled Banner

weren’t music before they were words

and hurt,

can become pride

in the one thing that it defines.

Because poetry taught me

what it means to be free.