I am the neighbour. I called him in.
In our house, we didn’t want to have
Any agitators.
When we hung up the swastika flag
He didn’t hang up anything.
When we requested him to
He asked us if we, in our room,
In which we live with four children,
Still had enough room for a flagpole.
When we said that we believed in the future again
He laughed.
That they hit him down the stairs
Didn’t please us. They ripped his overalls.
That wouldn’t have been necessary. None of us
Have many pairs of overalls.
But at least he is gone now, and quiet reigns in the house.
We have enough to worry about, so
We have to have quiet, at least.
We now see that a few people
Look away when they pass us. But
Those who took him away say
We did the right thing.

So, now that I’ve officially lost the argument, let me rise zombie-like to say enough with the flag-worship. My impression of Barack Obama is that he’s genuinely patriotic — in a good way. And outside of America, we think that’s rare, for an American.