The Parade

The parade will feature red dragons,
drums, sixty horses
and a sharpshooter in kimono.

Children will receive small flags to wave.
Women will receive small children to clutch.
You may note we offer five varieties

of yellow ribbon.
You may note we’ve drained the gunpowder
from your firecrackers.

Look at how the cherry blossoms
squawk and circle
before sinking their pink talons

into the monuments.
The monuments play dead.
They are fleshy with granite.

Think of these barricades as an embrace
of concrete. Look—
how your country longs to hold you.