Patriot

“You keep saying that word. I do not think it means 

what you think it means.” (“The Princess Bride”)

 

Photo by Ben Padgett

It's not someone who clings

   to a past interpretation

      of national identity,

         withdrawing amendments

      1 or 2 or both, worshiping them

   as if they are, in static interpretation,

the be-all and end-all of our existence.

It's not a force field we can activate,

   protecting us from present

      or future examination

   of our actions or interpretations

re our country's founding documents.

If we want to hitch our wagons

   to those who carved this word

   out of their selfless actions

and into their collective identities,

we're going to have to let

   our own energy and enterprise

      be examined in the harsh candlelight

   of the present and the withering

starlight of the future.

History is the root

   of today's loyalty,

not its fruit.

We are gardening

   for patriotism's grapes,

not digging for its peanuts.

The future will judge us,

   not for how we held our ground

      through hell and high water,

   but by how freely we tended

and pruned the vine of hope.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins