America

by Talicha J.

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I hear they say America is land of the free,

home of the brave…

but I’m not brave enough to believe I’m free.

They’ve just exchanged the ropes once used as nooses
for gag orders tied around tongues.
Advertise freedom of speech,
televise equality, yet fail to follow through.

 

Here in America, they will chew you up,
and spit you out because they can.
Correction; because YES WE CAN!
Our roads may be paved but it makes no difference
since our hearts are gravel.
We expect privilege,
assume platinum spoons in mouths are our birth rights
and equate self-worth by the digits in bank accounts.

 

Oh sweet land of liberty,
we weren’t grateful for a land so fair and
now thine alabaster cities have been dimmed by human tears.
As a nation we are not humane,
not to our fullest potential.
Show more respect to our pets than our peers,
place more value on ornate material than it’s worth.
And it has all been said before but,
it seems as though it has yet to be heard.

 

America, I’ve heard you say you’ll leave no man left behind,
and in a sense you haven’t.
Instead you’ve placed them before yourself…
when levees break,
when quaked earth breaks,
when taxes don’t take breaks,
you’ve kept your word.

 

Tear down bridges to little boys’ hearts
so the journey into manhood becomes a battlefield.
Set fire to little girls’ self esteem
so every time they look into mirrors
all they see is scars.

 

You’ve been a brutal teacher America.
Never grading on the curve
no extra credit for over achievers
only the cheaters really succeed.

 

If the world placed a magnifying glass
up against the American flag
would they be able to see
how faded the hearts within the fifty stars have become?
Would they be able to tell that your broad stripes
could never be regarded with the same assurance of safety
broad shoulders provide?

 

Tell me, that dream of yours,
was it always designed just to be a dream?
A false hope of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
because most of your people have been trapped
in an American nightmare
with no dream catchers to capture
the pain, failure and defeat you’ve implanted in our sleep.

 

America, your beauty quickly turned into conceit,
likening you to that mean girl in high school that
people only respect out of fear,
you sicken me sometimes!

Then I remember, it’s because of what I’ve done,
what we’ve done as a nation
that’s molded you into your current state.
Yet we don’t take responsibility.

 

Instead we place all our hopes and dreams
into a new man every four, maybe eight years
and judge, blame and prosecute them
within the courts of our hearts.

 

America, do your children disappoint you,
the same way most of us claim to be
disappointed by you?

 

I hear they say you’re land of the free,
home of the brave…
but I’m not brave enough to believe I’m free,
because every right you’ve given
I’ve relinquished
all for the sake of saying
I’m free.