I Know Why The Flags Are Halfmast

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 A response to this article https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/charlie-kirk-ezra-klein-tanehisi-coates

Ta-Nehesi Coates, like a
mythic archer piercing the veil 
In Vanity Fair of all places
explains what we truly mourn:

Not a certain person
whose shtick was inarticulate 
but not innocuous, who rode
on waves of people hell-bent
on jawdropping, gawking,
just passing through,

No, we lower our flags—
at dual language immersion
elementary schools, a week
after SCOTUS made speaking
Spanish a reasonable suspicion
for masked federal agents to 
stop, detain, snatch—

At a failing democracy 
a signal of the death 
and destruction yet 
to come. 

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