NAVIN DESAI
How to Paint the American Flag
- splatter red
onto the canvas / need not fear if you don’t have paint / blood will do just fine / select a place to collect a sample / yes, Uvalde / it will be fresh / flowing / from fourth grade bodies / pinned to incarnadine carpets / with 45 mm bullets / they learned will pierce beating hearts / before american indolence / on your way out / see drawings of families / dancing under moonlight / sky plastered with crayon dots and crimson stars / see posters titled When I grow up, I hope to be… / buried beneath lifeless dreams / larger than the bodies you must hurdle
- add blue
but make sure it’s vibrant / like sapphire / like choking throats / knees on necks / blocking justice / from grazing / George / Eric / Breonna / Ahmaud / Melanated / Skin / collect the tears / of a weeping movement / that it took death / to ignite
make sure the blue gushes / like poison / swimming in Flint waters / down household taps / through human veins / to dying lungs / hardly breathing / American air / they say it saves money / to imperil / (Black) life
- pour white
from above / watch it drip slowly / suffocating colors / overpowering / until all is drowned
- now admire
your art / take your time
remember carefully
red is for
v a l o r
blue is for
j u s t i c e
white is for
i n n o c e n c e
place your hand on your pulsing
heart and shout
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America…
Navin Desai is a rising senior at Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C. He is a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national Gold Medalist, a 2023 YoungArts Winner in Spoken Word, and has been recognized by the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His work has been published in a variety of literary journals and publications, including Best Teen Writing 2022. Recently, he has intersected his passions for both writing and activism by launching Active Voice, a growing nationwide youth literary magazine.