Patriot by Alice Walker

If you
Want to show
Your love
For America
Love
Americans
Smile
When you see
One
Flowerlike
His
Turban
Rosepink.

Rejoice
At the
Eagle feather
In a grandfather's
Braid.

If a sister
Bus rider's hair
Is
Especially
Nappy
A miracle
In itself
Praise it.

How can there be
Homeless
In a land
So crammed
With houses

&
Young children
Sold
As sex snacks
Causing our thoughts
To flinch &
Snag?

Love your country
By loving
Americans.

Love Americans.

Salute the soul
& the body
Of who we
Spectacularly &
Sometimes
Pitifully are.
Love us. We are
The flag.

Patriot by Alice Walker
(From her 2003 poetry collection, "Absolute Faith in the Goodness of the Earth")