Grade 1: Stand and remove your hats 

Grade 2: Stand and remove your hats 

Grade 3: Stand and remove your hats 

              Grade 4....5....6....7....

Grade 8: Why am I standing and removing my hat? 

Grade 9: Should I stand and remove my hat? 

              Grade 10....11....

Grade 12: I stand in silence and remove my hat in obedience 

12 years of being told to stand for a flag before I even knew that the 13 stripes represented the 13 colonies

Before I knew why I was standing 

Standing in a school building that was built on top of the bones of the natives silenced by the intruding colonizers

The same school that shoves American privilege down our throats 

The same institution that rips out every sin coated in our countries blood from our textbooks 

We are pledging to the flag whose meaning gets twisted and chewed- 

Pledging allegiance to the flag before being able to do math without our fingers

Teachers having us stand what was once everyday to now every Monday and pledge till our so called freedom of speech is powered by the same flag that populates every classroom 

We are taught young and when we finally gain a voice it's all down to conformity 

You will be bashed for sitting in retaliation 

While you wonder-

What am I standing for? 

Liberty and Justice for all yet- under God bled it's way onto the flag- 

How can we have liberty when we are under God

Giving the flag more authority once it grasps religion by the testimonies 

If we stand for the flag then we must stand with God and if we don't see God then you must not see the stripes and stars that strip away our speech and replace it with freedom of speech

The freedom that goes as far as the stripes of our country 

Am I standing for the same reasons I stood in Grade 1? 

When I couldn;t develop such a concept- that our fallen soldiers built this foundation with their bare and bloodied hands

To them, I pledge 

To the flag that creeps in the front of the class with its proselytizing nature being underlined in the blood of our countries borders and a pledge carved into the flesh of Americans so we to bleed it's stripes and blindly oath to such a symbol- 

I ask.... 

What am I standing for?