This poem is for my brother who decided to wash his American flag instead of his truck (he has never washed his truck)

I Am What You Make Me
(The flag speaks)
by Franklin K. Lane
I am whatever you make me, nothing more.
I am your belief in yourself, your dream of what a people may become.
I live a changing life, a life of moods and passions, of heartbreaks and tired muscles.
Sometimes I am strong with pride, when workmen do a honest piece of work,
Sometimes I droop, for then purpose has gone from me, and cynically I play the coward;
But always I am all that you hope to be, and have the courage to try for.
I am song and fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling hope.
I am the day’s work of the weakest man, and the largest dream of the most daring.
I am what you make me, nothing more.
I Swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color,
A symbol of yourself,
A pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this nation.
My stars and stripes are your dream and your labors,
They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courge, firm with faith,
because you have made them so out of your hearts