lovaliss's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert and his flag. Every day I come down the hill I see Robert�s squishy pear-shaped body piled onto the sidewalk. I see his outline against the horizon and the flag waving back and forth in the air. It�s a hand held American flag so dirty that where it was once white, it is now a dingy yellow. I imagine it to be like the flag�s taken into battle and beaten into a keepsake that some white-haired veteran takes around the country to grade school assemblies. He�d present the flag and tell all the kids about his experience serving in World War II and they�d all feel something stir inside their innocent little hearts looking at this tattered flag. But this flag is clutched in the palm of a pure-hearted down syndrome boy. He sits on the sidewalk facing east every evening waving his flag back and forth. He stays there for about two hours before somebody calls his name and he reluctantly waddles indoors. We often stop to talk to Robert and he tells us about his life. He looks up at us from the sidewalk with magnified eyes. His glasses are thick framed and blow his eyes up to twice their size. 2:34 p.m. - 2005-09-29 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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