Emotions drawn from Benny Andrews’ Flag Day

This past semester of my graduate program I took an ekphrastic writing course where I truly had to let go of my editing process that is rooted in art historical writing and feel what I was looking at. Below is a series of thoughts complied into a rhythmical literary piece of my emotional that were extracted when standing in front of Flag Day by Artist, Benny Andrews.

Smack dab in the middle of blood and cotton,
patriarchal stripes waltz around his brown skin.
Despite being excluded from the narrative,
he's still encapsulated by bone and cherry shades.
His cinnamon-flecked skin
is enshrouded by hickory's smooth caress
and ashy strokes that create space between the stripes.
A tiny peek of his walnut skin emerges,
enclosed by a thin charcoal line.
The ivory stripes lack consistency
as bone,
powder,
and cream jostle for the perfect white.
Suddenly,
his fist pounds the blue out of sight,
and saffron hues peek through the mist.
Steel-blue
outlines of stars dance around,
lacking structure and pigment.
Shaking umber digits address the flag,
Pledge allegiance to injustice.