On my first visit to Independence Hall:



Red & white candy in my pocket

and mouth which I empty to be searched,

x-rayed and otherwise

                       impersonally violated.

The cost of admission is getting pretty high.



This time the blue coats

are National Park guides,

eyes round and wide under Smokey's

cool-bear brim. filled with history

in this icon of democratic hope~

and it's largely unplanned

revolution of this country.



And my bag, as it tumbles under the

paranoid gaze of man and machine,

         strikes me as amusing~

The home of the brave?

     It's relative.



         Perhaps.