Newspaper Story by Michael Hamburger

Poetry Nation 1, 1973

Newspaper Story

Santa Barbara News Press
Feb. 16th, 1973

I.

In Hartford City, Indiana,
Lived a factory worker, Gary,
Patriotic enough to invest
What little cash he could spare
In US Savings Bonds.
His reward came in the shape
Of a flag. But not rich enough
To own a house, an apartment
Or a flagpole on which to hang it,
Gary pinned up the flag
In his minibus as a curtain.

II.

When Gary was arrested
For desecrating the flag
His hair was noted to be
Of un-American length;
And the minibus, too, his home,
Was not of American make.

III.

Just when the Vietnam heroes
Were due for repatriation
Gary was sentenced to bear
Old Glory for three hours
Outside the City Hall.
While police guards stood by
He was watched by a mixed crowd
Of longhairs, Boy Scouts
And American Legionnaires
In full regalia. The word
'Commie' was shouted repeatedly.

IV.

Gary might have been fined.
But the judge, a patriot too,
Thought public penance more apt.
'The intent was embarrassment,'
He commented later. 'A fine
Wouldn't reach that man.'

V.

'What could I do?' asked Gary.
'I ain't got 1000 dollars.
It wasn't much of a choice.
Either look like an idiot,
Slapped in the stocks, jeered at
As a communist or something,
Or else let my wife and kids
Go hungry.'

VI.

Strange, in the end
Everyone seemed to weaken.
Gary after one hour
Withdrew to the courtroom, to finish
His penance beneath a plaque
Bearing the pledge of allegiance,
And so made the penance private -
Not, to be sure, because
Of the biting winter winds.
The publicity hurt his credit,
His father's, too, and his wife's.
Indeed he demanded review
Of his case in a Circuit Court.

The judge said: 'Being a veteran,
Proud of my country and flag,
I'd probably do it again.'

Probably? There was the chink
Where the rot of treason sets in.
That judge was eating crow.

---

Michael Hamburger (1924–2007) was a poet and critic of distinction as well as the outstanding translator of German poetry. His awards include the Schlegel-Tieck Prize (1981), the German Federal Republic’s Goethe Medal (1986) and the EC’s first European Translation Prize (1990) for Poems of Paul Celan. Five collections of his poetry appeared since Collected Poems 1941–1994. He also published several collections of essays, the critical study The Truth of Poetry, and an autobiography String of Beginnings. His translations include selections from Celan, Eich, Goethe, Hofmannsthal, Hölderlin, Peter Huchel, Rilke and others.

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