The Martyr of Toulouse

What of the Frenchman who perished
when his factory exploded?

On the mourning of September 12,
he unfurled a U.S. flag,
to protests from a fellow worker,
a fanatic, enraged that America
be honored here in France.

He withstood the spitting anger,
the dark-eyed stare,
the words of Allah's warning,
and kept those bloodied
stars and stripes in place.

His sacrifice came gloriously,
to streets shaken,
windows broken
two miles away.

Scott Speck
10/06/2001