All Flag
Phillip Shabazz is the author of three poetry collections, and a novel in verse. His poetry has been included in the anthologies, Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont: A Guidebook, and Home Is Where: African-American Poetry from the Carolinas. Some previous publication credits in journals include, Fine Lines, Galway Review, Hamilton Stone Review, Hamline Lit, Impossible Task, ImpSpired, K'in, Mason Street Journal, New Critique, On The Seawall, and the Sky Island Journal.
By Phillip Shabazz
a bloody bandage from a regime
a rag revolving the red cross
an old bleach in the eye
a tumor bloated infection
a badge on hairless skin
a spit poisonous sucked by the tongue
a torch to incinerate a black Jesus
a fire on the sepulcher come resurrection
and not the hidden self-portrait
at some picnic, but the public crucifixion by
armed foot soldiers strapped to projectiles
armor bred ballistic ships
a flag armed with a thousand blizzards
a flag the same public crucifixion
and slamming the same oven doors because
a flag highjacks Liberty
and knocks her teeth out
an idol weaned on
a polyp—have you seen its face with a name because
a brain cell past the sell-by such
and such date engineers viruses used
as blow weapons because
a flag bleeds armor in the street
a flag bleeds all itself
and all the stars here
and all the stars to come