Flag - Joe Henry

Take that noise out in the street

This rubble out from under my feet

No rest for the weary in here

And make a fuss, you’re a volunteer

These days, they lord above me

Growing mean as they grow shorter

Like a flag on a closing border now…

Closing right behind you

In a crowd down off the hill

Full of bloodlust and good will

We carried pride above our heads

Like a flag we could cheer to wake the dead

And when we could go no further

And were drowning on a desert

We raised our flag to follow the breath of God…

But it was blowing every which way

I loved you long before I knew

Love is something one decides to do

My vanity and fear conspired belief

That love’s just a mirror for a thief

So when you held me tight against you

And I mistook your heart for thunder

And like a flag, hid behind and under you…

Who could blame me?

(When you held me tight against you

And I mistook your heart for thunder

Like a flag, I hid behind it

Like a flag, I’m hiding under you)

Now I hang my clothes out to dry

Like waves of surrender, they fly

The whore of this world looks old and played

Still she peeks from the alley

Like a waiting bride’s maid

Laugh or bleed as you need to

Who of us doesn’t know already?

Every flag flies like confetti now…