I grimace at the ripples

as my neighbours hoist

up the British flag.

The Union Jack underneath which

I shudder. I shudder

at the power, the dying,

the miscommunication,

the missing education,

and I shiver in the cold red

white and blue. Blue

sadness, blue lips,

blue blood and Blake’s words

about more blood

running down palace walls.

Whilst Jack shimmers in the wind,

in the sun, as if it is nothing,

as if it were fabric forgetful

of its deadly weight in gold.

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Kristiana Reed is a writer and an English Teacher living in the UK. She is the creator of My Screaming Twenties and sole editor of Free Verse Revolution on WordPress. She released her debut poetry collection, Between the Trees, in Spring 2019. Her work has been published in several poetry anthologies (Swear To Me, All The Lonely People, We Will Not Be Silenced), in the feminist…