Strapping Nation

Strapping Nation
By Tatiana Pahlen

It was she, a woman from Belgium,
who arrived to the United States just to glimpse,
if the Big Apple was still big.
It was!
"So many flags; it's pathetic!" she approaches me on the corner of Lexington.
"It's an honorable display of pride of this nation." I shed light on the foreigner.
"We are a nation too," she said, "We don't stick flags everywhere."
"Your nation is not big," I suggest. These flags are carrying
courage, memory, and a union with the loss of loved ones.
"There are some other countries that lost their people too," she persists.
"Three thousand, at once?"
"Maybe more!"
"In one day?"
"But how can these flags help your nation?"
"It helps a great deal to heal the pain."
"Flags?"
Her ignorance gets on my nerves.
Oh Rudy! Why did you invite these people to New York!
"What is your profession?" I asked, to remain receptive.
"I am an artist!"
"Belgium?"
"Born and raised!" I hear a nationalistic vanity in her voice.
"I knew an artist from Brussels, Jean-Claude Van Damme!"
"Is he an artist?"
"Sure, a martial artist!"
With this punch I leave this trying tourist to see more flags.
Passing the first stand, I purchase a three-color pin and place it on my jacket.
It does feel good to see support from outstanding New Yorkers!
I am poised to live among them.