Three Poems by Alfred K. LaMotte

Pledge

I pledge allegiance to no flag.
I pledge allegiance to no nation,
no government, no border.
True patriotism is rebellion.
True rebellion is joy.
Cast down the mighty, the masters of war.
I pledge allegiance to the poor.
I pledge allegiance to weeds and sod.
I pledge allegiance to the moon and tide.
I pledge allegiance to sun and wind.
I pledge allegiance to the rainbow,
to the light that contains all colors.
I pledge allegiance to coral.
I pledge allegiance to an heirloom tomato seed.
I pledge allegiance to the unborn
curled in the mother’s sea of trust.
I pledge allegiance to the dust.
I pledge allegiance to all the winged
and swimming children of the earth,
to crawling things and creatures of night,
to all my friends, four-legged and two.
I pledge allegiance to you.
 

Thrush

The wick inside us
cannot light itself.
Someone bends kindly
to offer the ancient flame.
Neither does earth kindle
her own warmth.
The sun was here before us.
Even our space is curved
by a mother’s invisible blackness.
Now, just before dawn
a thrush is waiting to feel
your pull, the jasmine breath
of your listening.
Only then does she sing
and it is morning.
The gravity of silence
turns in circles wider
than oneness.
Therefor let your seed
be nourished by the loam
of its own moldering blossoms,
your effects and their causes
hopelessly mingled
in the living mud.
Ponder this, friend:
there is no awakening
without otherness.
Love has created us to love.

Midnight

Now that it’s midnight
I’ll tell you a secret.
You are the candle,
God is the moth.