The colorful flag emphasized EVERYone 

Everyone is welcome here, it read 

I wondered, even those who carry guns?

Those with different shaped heads?

Criminal offenders and nuns?

The Taliban?

COVID vaccine creators?

Drivers of scooters and minivans?

Europeans and dark skinned people from the equator?

Meat eaters, vegetarians?

Screaming, orphaned babies and disabled centenarians?

What about Christians and atheists?

Fighters and pacifists 

Environmentalists and consumerists 

Is there a home for everyone with a suffix?

As if that’s all we are 

Tolerance is a nice idea until someone deliberately crashes into your car

I stood outside my neighbor’s yard

Watching that flag flap in the wind 

A limousine pulled up 

And out emerged the President 

Then a huge bus with some pro football players (I didn’t know any of their names)

But my neighbor came out 

And with her violent words she yelled

Oh, how she cast blame

At one of these – I’ll let you guess which

The other neighbor across the street, with the same flag in her yard, yelled at the woman and called her a —-

My Golden retriever, meanwhile, went around kissing everyone 

Even the chihuahua and the dalmatian and the strays that had come

I stood on the edge of that lawn

Pondering what had gone wrong

All the people were arguing 

And the dogs were marveling – as they kicked footballs around 

Their happy tails waved like flags 

As the tiny cosmos of my street went mad 

I looked up but don’t know why and I noticed a rainbow there in the sky 

Hovering over all of us 

I was taught as a kid that the rainbow was a symbol of a promise 

I wonder if there will ever be a place where all are welcome 

The signs and flags are nice 

But even those who display them have hearts surrounded by ice 

And I know the church tries 

I, too, have got my own alibis 

As to why I don’t really love my neighbors 

I’m guilty of telling everyone to come back later

It seems only the dogs got it right 

I stood at the edge of that yard and pondered and prayed

Lord, help us in our plight