Be realistic: demand the impossible! 
           --slogan, Paris, May 1968, attributed to

                 Jean Duvignaud and Michel Leiris

      I am of no nationality ever contemplated by 
         the chancelleries
           --Aime Cesaire

My brief glimpse of just one star
Just one stripe
In the flag which unseen as an old woman
Lies flat on so many windows
Did not admit me to patriotism
That room where tickets are collected every day and cost 
    nothing

I saw one star clearly for just a moment
White as a virgin's desire 
In a blue field
Which will turn green no sooner than the sky
It had no politicians in it
And the girl all in white was black as often as not

I saw a long red stripe
A river of blood
In which everyone bathed without permission 
It will turn green when the only blood 
Is in weeds on our graves 

I am of no nationality ever contemplated
But I have a flag
One star in a blue field
And the river of human life
The living flag of an impossible nation
Which I intend to demand

                        --Pete Winslow











                  (copyright) 1973 Reprinted by permission of City Lights Books