In the Flags They Go to Sunbathe and Swim As if Dressed for a Devout Water Rite

 

“Let them go clothed
In the speech of symbols;
Let them echo them,
Not knowing what they do.”

Only poetry, at times,
Still attempts to pass
From the trivial
Into the other,

Swimming
Against the common current.

In late June,
Almost July,

Women and girls
Are encouraged
To bathe
Clothed
In the nation's flag—

Bright with stars,
And cheerful stripes of red
Upon white,

So that an emblem
Becomes flesh,

And the bodies
Of Lady Liberty
And Miss America
Trade
In unsheathed pride.

Indeed,
What better way
Than to wear a banner
As a bathing dress,

Thus revealing
America's hidden
Neptunian element,

By which that very flesh,
As though baptized,
Proclaims
A secret word:

That, deep down,
We have all become
Candid,
Unabashed,
Atlanteans.