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                                                                                   Who Will Mend Me?
​

                                                                             Once I was old and glorious.
                                                                                    Once my children held tightly together,
                                                                                    little stars all shiny and proud.
                                                                                    Each different, each honored to belong
                                                                                    to a greatness history had never seen.
                                                                                    And there was a time they were torn.
                                                                                    Miraculously, they held together through unbearable pain
                                                                                    and horrifying shedding of brotherly blood.
                                                                                    A death-to-the-end fight for equality,
                                                                                    a noble fight, my children fought.

                                                                                    I have been bravely carried and planted
                                                                                    in places on this earth man had never seen.
                                                                                    I have been to the moon!
                                                                                    I have been dug from the rubble,
                                                                                    and resurrected like a phoenix,
                                                                                    to inspire courage and strength to go on.
                                                                                    I have witnessed moments and have been proud.
                                                                                    I have witnessed moments and have been ashamed.

                                                                                    Once I was sacred.
                                                                                    Desecrating me for political gain would have been a thing
                                                                                     only an enemy would dare do.
                                                                                    Today, cowards falsely embrace me with sham patriotism,
                                                                                     and unbridled hypocrisy.
                                                                                     They drape themselves with me.
                                                                                     Bent on abolishing their freedoms, they rip my children apart.

                                                                                    Now I am tired, faded, and need of repair.
                                                                                    Who will mend me?
                                                                                    Who will see my agony, and take a kind loving hand to me?
                                                                                     I have been steadfast, I have never wavered,
                                                                                     I have been here for you all.
                                                                                     I have led you through battles with your bodies,
                                                                                     through battles for your souls.
                                                                                    And now you desert me, you use me to destroy your neighbors.
                                                                                    What will become of me? 
                                                                                    Will the evil in man's heart, will his insatiable worship
                                                                                     of power, of money, and religion be my demise?

                                                                                    To fly again, new and whole, to fly with my children united,
                                                                                     my threads mended, my colors brilliant, to be strong and proud again.
                                                                                    This is my hope, this is my dream.
                                                                                     Who will mercifully mend me? 
                                                                                     I ask.
                                                                                         
                                                                                    Lorraine Parish              
                                                                                     published by The Vineyard Gazette
                                                                                     07/04/2018                                                                                
                                                                                            
Lorraine Parish    11 Centenario, Los Frailes, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico  [email protected]m
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  • I Think That... Debut Edition
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  • Screenplay "Clara's Secrets"
  • Screenplay "Old Jake"
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  • Screenplay "The Ghosts Of Windham Falls"
  • Screenplay "The Door Knocker Diaries"
  • Essay Road Trip
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  • Essay A Mile In Their Shoes
  • White Privilege and Me
  • In the Blink of an Eye
  • Hey, that's my Stuff!
  • Lorraine — Soup Nazi of Masks
  • Letters From Camp Pick-a-Potus
  • Essays — Political Essays
  • Poem "Who Will Mend Me?"
  • Short Story "It Took A Village"
  • About Lorraine
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