Patriotism

Patriotism



          A woman, clothed from her face down to her ankles in black, stepped carefully down an old pathway with a jug on one hip and a child on the other. Several times she tripped, but caught herself and continued walking with poise. She could hardly see through the thick veil that hung from her hairline, shading her skin from the sun.

         The burning sun blazed black.

         Keeping her pace, not looking to her side, above her, nor below at the rust-colored dirt, she came to a lake. Her child began to wail and motion towards the lake, hungry. The mother hushed her child gently, sighed, then moved towards the scarlet liquid. On its face the sun was reflected white, instead of black. The blood was so thick that the image didn’t ripple or sway. The babe’s cries grew louder, so the mother progressed, step by step with a wrinkled nose, not looking to her sides at the bodies, above at the dying sun or below her at the opaque fluid. She didn’t wonder as, wading, she felt fleshy objects bump against her under the surface. She submersed her jug, returned to her child and smiled. The baby grinned back at her, its smile the crescent moon missing from the sky, its eyes the soulless black holes devouring the universe.

          “More?” It questioned her, head tilted.

         “Not much, but there is some. There will be more when I die, Countrie.” She placed the jug in front of the babe, but it didn’t respond. “Darling?” she asked it. It didn’t answer her. She reached behind it to the string protruding from its back and pulled, to animate her child-doll once more. It raised its head mechanically

         “More?”

          “Yes, there is more,” she confided, then drank the blood herself. Still hungry, she gnawed at her own bones, drawing blood. “For you, I will always give more.”







Note for Clarification: The country no longer being a helpless babe but a human made/controlled doll shifts blame to the woman. A country has no soul, but the woman does, and so do the people who die for an inanimate object in the name of patriotism.