Portside

My California
By Beau Beausoleil

The day
shapes
itself
with
lunar
light
and
the
close
dreams
gathered
from
those
waking
in sorrow

and up
the
coast
more
lives
are
cut
like
flowers
and left
to bleed
their
beauty
into
tears

My
country
has a
second
flag
now fully
unfurled
and visible
made up
of guns
and hate

Beau Beausoleil is a poet and activist (Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here) and is the author of 15 books of poetry. Forthcoming is a limited edition chapbook of poems called The Killing of George Floyd -Intermittent Press 2023.