Liberty Tree

Not quite the ode to freedom you were thinking of. A poem.

In sixth grade we planted a liberty tree
for the bicentennial — a skinny sapling
beside the aluminum flagpole.
We held hands and sang off key
“My Country ’Tis of Thee”.

Then we survived junior high,
teen torments, college knowledge.
Then the future blitzed us
and sacked the quarterback,
a facemask eating grass.