Sovereignty

Can be fragile, easy

to fade or be erased, all

It takes is a single heavy hand

or a legend thrown

Like a gauntlet, the hand that opens

an island’s body, an autopsy.

Nothing says empire

like a flag, says republic like fabric

Stretched & strung, swathes

of land tethered, a sanguine stitch

Of the tongue, language conquers

from within     before the blade

Separates flesh & kin,

breath & the line, all

Broken by a wall

& a people’s history

Crumbling in another’s wake