i decry the wasted effort 

of nationalism 

if you look for 

a thing that isn’t there

finding it

will take forever 

but we keep looking

for sovereignty

as if it could keep us warm

or fill our bellies

when we have for long

lived in an age of empires

we bear the fasces epochal

as the colonial ceasefire breaches

yet more racist murders

sanctioned.

victory is hollow. 

temporary.

achievement too

the only thing

is the process 

of making

of caring 

of loving

all nationalism is bad, it really doesn’t matter what country it relates to. all nationalism is rooted in complacency, historical delusions, perverse grudges, jingoism, racism, fairy tales and holy violence.

the struggle of one is the struggle of all. when we reject that, we are forced into a debilitating cognitive dissonance that blurs all boundaries. when you adopt a team and make it your identity, yet have no control of the team, you are creating the circumstances for terrible moral compromises.