When sleepless, it’s helpful to meditate on mottoes of the states.
South Carolina, “While I breathe I hope.” Perhaps this could be
the new flag on the empty flagpole.
Or “I Direct” from Maine –
Why, because Maine gets the first sunrise? How bossy, Maine!
In Arkansas, “The People Rule.” Lucky you.
Kansas, “To the Stars Through Difficulties” –
clackety wagon wheels, long, long land
and the droning press of heat – cool stars, relief.
Idaho, “Let it be perpetual” – now this is strange.
Idaho, what is your “it”?
Who chose these lines?
How many contenders?
What would my motto be tonight, in tangled sheets?
Texas – “Friendship” – now boasts the Open Carry law.
Wisconsin, where my mother’s parents are buried,
chose “Forward.”
New Mexico – “It Grows as it Goes” – now this is scary.
Two dangling its. This does not represent that glorious place.
West Virginia, “Mountaineers are always free” –
especially when they’re dead? Seems like they die a lot.
Oklahoma must be tired – “Labor conquers all things.”
Oklahoma, get together with Nevada, who chose only
“Industry” as motto. I think of Nevada as a playground,
or mostly empty. How wrong we are about one another.
For Alaska to pick “North to the Future”
seems odd. Where else are they going?