“The Mirror and the Flag” Poem

 

“The Mirror and the Flag”

They came with books and guns and gold,
A vision dressed in blood and flame,
They spoke of freedom, carved in stone—
But never once could speak the name.

The name of those beneath the land,
The name of those in rusted chains,
The name of all who died unheard
While empire sang its proud refrains.

They built their house on stolen ground,
With walls of steel and dreams of war,
A marketplace, a garrison,
A flag above a killing floor.

And through the years the lies were told,
Of liberty and shining light—
But every glow came from the fire
Of cities swallowed in the night.

Now sirens wail through hollow towns,
Where debt has paved the roads with pain,
And children pledge allegiance still
To ghosts that whisper in their name.

The preachers cry, “Restore the past!”
The soldiers mutter, “Hold the line.”
But no one asks what lies beneath—
The rotting roots of their decline.

Beyond the shores, the world moves on,
New voices rise from Eastern clay,
The wolf no longer stalks alone,
The stars no longer light the way.

The Five Eyes blink, the cables snap,
The mirror cracks beneath the strain—
And somewhere deep within the myth,
A whisper dares to speak the shame:

“Are we the monsters? Were we blind?
Did justice wear a soldier’s face?”
And in the stillness, no reply—
Just silence echoing through space.

So let the myths be laid to rest,
Let mourning cleanse the poisoned well.
A nation born of conquest falls—
And frees the world it tried to sell.