“I pledge allegiance…” Wait. What do those words
mean? Let’s stop there. I taught fourth graders shades
of meaning: nation, liberty that girds
us, justice, celebrating in parades…

We are united, all is under God
in this republic where the people choose
its president. We vote to give the nod
to leadership. I stressed, “We cannot lose

if unity continues as our goal.”
I wanted understanding of these nine
year-olds to change from mumbled words to whole
ideas on which our forefathers dined.

(This poem originated from the sentence “I just put my hand over my heart like we did in school for the Pledge of Allegiance.” And it’s true that I always taught my students the meanings of the words in the Pledge so they weren’t simply empty words to them.)