In patriotism I'm an atheist

But I try to be fairly quiet.
When the mass is held I sing the songs, because they have that visceral straight-jacket
squeeze around me just like everyone else. I see my man hold his hand
across his chest in earnest and feel an enormous tenderness just because
I know he's good; shh-shh don't have any nightmares, don't mind me, it's your party and here's my love...
But I can never forget slaves and Injuns and Poles that never stuck up for the jews, imperialist Brits and fascist Swedes and don't even get me started on other places.

There just is no god for me, even though his people did so much good, and the secularized ethics are valuable in portions, I eat them with salt.

Replace god with flag and never am I more an alien from outer space with a broken ship than when those two are combined.

But I love the people and the grilled meat, the beer and the day off, and when the universal bozo comes up to me and says "yeaaah, it's America's birthday today, we've been saving the world's ass since 1775", I smile and hold my tongue.

Because I love you enough to rewrite the bible, to haul the flag and become the Canaanite woman eating scraps from the chidren's table.