Flag Half Mast: Overture

I heard the news
Read the story
Lower Old Glory:
Flag half mast

From my house
I didn’t hear the shot
But doubt it not:
Flag half mast

So much fear
So much rage
Untended bodies
Left on-stage

And mine the shame
Mine the debt
I won’t forget:
Flag half mast

Flag Half Mast 1: The Day the Brownshirts Came To Town

The day the Brownshirts came to town, all us boys ran to watch them as soon as school let out. Some of the kids even snuck out early. We were all crazy about their uniforms and we loved the way they marched. They weren’t smiling but we could tell they were on our side, that they were the good guys. And they had guns, real guns, right out on display. Some of the kids knew what kind they were, like, “That’s a Luger,” or whatever. We all wanted to have guns like that. And the girls, they all giggled and waved at the Brownshirts who never waved back of course and we boys hated it, the girls just being dumb girls.

I stayed for some of the rally. It wasn’t that interesting and the music was stupid and there were lots of speeches, but we were happy to be there and see those guys with their uniforms and guns, When I got home little late for dinner and told them where I’d been. Grandma said, “Good for them! They’ll keep us safe.” Dad folded the paper he’d been reading and said, “It’s just trouble. Who needs all this trouble.”  Uncle Louie wasn’t at his place and I asked Mom where he was. “Oh,” she said. “Oh, well he had to go away for a little bit. He’ll be back in a while.” Uncle Louie was always doing weird things like that.

When I finished I asked to be excused. I wanted to run out and play with the guys. I said to Mom, “This is all for TV, right?  I mean, it’s not real is it?” Mom gave me a big hug, maybe a little bigger than I like, and she said, “Run out and play, just be back before it’s dark, OK?” and I went out to play Brownshirts with the guys.

Song: I Saw It On TV

Everyone cheered

Everyone hip-hoorayed

The pomp and pageantry

Yes, everyone cheered

The soldiers on parade

I saw it on TV

We watched them come

They brought us 

Comic books and chewing gum

We saw it on TV

They told us they’d build

A new glorious arch

And burn down the library

They told us each week

We’d have a glorious march

We’d see it on TV

We watched them come

They brought us 

Comic books and chewing gum

We saw it on TV

This must be

Reality

We saw it on TV

Flag Half Mast 2: "The Partisans"

I saw a movie on TV last night, or I guess just saw part of one since I fell asleep, about a village under occupation.  First there’s the hero, although when you first see him you don’t know he’s the hero but you do, because he’s handsome and his hair looks nice. He’s down in the village. Up in the hills, the partisans are preparing for some kind of guerilla insurgency. They’re all sort of dark and grim-looking but super-noble, except the one funny guy, the joker who drinks too much who’s dark but not grim.  Back down in the village, there’s the bad girl who wears va-va-va-voom eyeliner and hats with feathers. She is sleeping with the head of the occupying forces. Then there’s the mayor who is utterly corrupt and the simple sweet farm girl with suspiciously beautiful teeth for a peasant.

In the hills, bodies were found with their throats cut. The mayor crumples up a piece of paper he’s holding and says, “These partisans must be stopped!  They are animals!” Poison pen letters have been appearing throughout the village and rumors are spreading and mistrust is building. The beautiful farm girl is accused of aiding the partisans and her head is shaved and it’s implied that she’s raped.

I must have fallen asleep for a while, because the next thing I remember is that the soldiers are all at this farmhouse, although inside it looks my grandma’s house, and they are about to take away the hero who has of course hooked up with the beautiful farm girl, still beautiful even though she’s had her head shaved. The bad girl with the great hats dives in front of a bullet, allowing the hero to escape and redeeming herself in death. The hero is going to do the only thing he can do now, go up into the hills with the partisans and fight the good fight.  The beautiful farm girl weeps and wants to go too and he valiantly makes her stay. She has beautiful, tragic, glycerin tears in her eyes.  Everyone is gone except a couple of dark, older, noble-looking villagers, and one of them says, he says it right to me, “We don’t want to be remembered, we only want to disappear into the shadows once we are victorious.” That was my favorite part, it almost seemed like it came from a different movie. “The wind will blow us all away,” he says, “and we’ll be forgotten. That’s all we ask.” There should have been music there, but there wasn’t any. I fell asleep again after that.

Song: The Anthem of the Partisans

They may spray us with tear gas

They may put us in jail

The strength of our arms may sometimes fail

But the struggle itself will go, on my friends

The struggle itself will prevail

The light may be fading

And we can’t see the flame

Sometimes we lose sight of our ultimate aim

But the struggle itself will go on, my friends

The struggle goes on all the same

We may compromise

Or join the enemy

We may prefer comfort to a life that’s free

 But the struggle itself will go on, my friends

 This struggle is bigger than you and me.

Flag Half Mast 3: Angry White Male

Once upon a time, and it wasn’t that long ago, I was king of this town and everybody knew it.  I could do whatever I wanted, I could shit on this place if I wanted to, because I was king.  Listen, I could get on any city bus and snap my fingers and someone would give me a seat, because they knew they had to.  Me and the guys, we’d do a couple of lines of itching power and Kaopectate and go out to the dance clubs and just beat our heads to the stupidest music you imagine, I mean it was really dumb, but no one could say a thing. And people couldn’t see us, they couldn’t hear our music, but also they had to see us, they had to hear the music, because we were so angry and the music was so dumb. So dumb and so loud.

Now everybody tells me, just stand in line, go suck your thumb, wait your turn. I should be able to grab whatever I want to, and they say just listen to Mother, we’ll get everything straightened out. I’ve been waiting my whole life.  How many people have better things than me, they’re not better than me, and they didn’t even wait their turn and the best anyone can come up with is be patient, listen to the grown-ups, things’ll get better if we all follow the rules. If we all follow their rules, that’s all they mean.  It’s just like everything these days: society tells you what to care about, what to think.

I remember those beautiful boys in their uniforms, and those coked-up swastika girls, they had bad perms and wore braces, but they were the most beautiful girls anyone had ever seen. They dressed up like Nazis but they weren’t really Nazis, they weren’t going to kill anyone, but they could, that’s the thing. They were beautiful and powerful and they could do whatever they wanted. If someone told us it was bad, if your mom and dad hated it, then we wanted it, we would do it and no one could stop us. But nowadays the girls—I don’t know what happened, but all the girls I used to know are fat now, and they talk too much and the girls who do matter, the ones who should be listening to me now, they don’t care.  It’s not like it used to be, things have changed, but I’m still the same. I’m still pissed off.  You can’t see me, you still can’t hear me, but I’m still pissed off.

 

Song: Democracy Has Failed!

Democracy, my friends, is a joke
It’s a bag of greasy donuts and a 40-ounce Coke
It’s Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian
Underwear worn as fash-i-on

We had a mighty ship of state
But now that ship has sailed
Take a look around you, friends
Democracy has failed

The people, friends, are a beast
For facts they care not in the least
Life’s a matter of team sports
The color of your cap and the color of your shorts

We can no longer fool ourselves
The truth has been unveiled
Take a look around you, friends
Democracy has failed

Letting the people decide is always a mistake
They’ll gorge themselves on grocery-store cake
The kind with cheap Crisco icing
Available for you at cut-rate pricing

We’re holding our breath, awaiting the worst
It’s time we just exhaled
Take a look around, you fools
Democracy has failed

Flag Half Mast 4: Twilight's Last Dreaming

I like to watch TV. I like sitting on the couch in the dark and watching. I like older TV shows especially. Like Ralph Kramden: he yells a lot and he threatens to hit his wife, but you know he won’t. He can’t. I mean, that’s the joke.  Or Archie Bunker: he’s a bigot and racist, but you like him. You feel bad for him. But now TV is different, or maybe it’s real life that’s different. Like, reality TV, it’s not real except then it becomes real.  What would it be like to be young now, and instead of seeing stuff on TV that you’d seen in real life, seeing stuff in real life that you’d seen on TV? The world is just a projection of your imagination, fantasy is reality, how great is that?  Except that what most people fantasize about is stupid and selfish, just about power and sex and always coming in first. Why be Fay Wray when you can be King Kong. Why be either when you can be both.

I don’t know what will happen now to people who like to lie on the couch in the dark and watch.  Will we just be taken advantage of, ignored, left in the darkness? I guess the story everyone wants is that we stand up and go into the hills to join the good guys. Whoever they are. Sign up for a team, wear the team colors and wave the team flag.  I hate all that stuff, I hate team sports, I don’t want to be on anybody’s team.

That reminds me of a dream I had the other night. In the dream I was asleep, or anyway I woke up and there was a huge fire, it wasn’t just my house, everything was on fire and I was trying to find my way out but it was so smoky, and then it was all flames, I couldn’t run anywhere I was just trapped.    Then somehow the fire stopped, I guess it was later, I was still in the same place but everything had burned down and there was nothing standing any more except the beams of the house and the fireplace. I wasn’t inside or outside anymore, everything was burned down and smoldering and covered with ash.  Flying from the beams of the house were all these flags, just at shoulder height and covered with ash.  It was almost dark but there was just a little blue light coming from somewhere. I stood there, I didn’t know what to do, and I realized that there was something in the house still, this is the weird part, I mean there wasn’t even a house left but there was something, it was like a spirit or a ghost, there was something still there, we’d forgotten or didn’t even know it was there before but now it was the only thing left, and I thought…I felt like crying, but I thought, if ever there was a moment for singing…I don’t know. I mean, it was just a dream. 

Song:  Partisans (reprise)

The light may be fading
And we can’t see the flame
Sometimes we lose sight of our ultimate aim
But the struggle itself will go on, my friends
The struggle goes on all the same