Thursday, March 6, 2014

'merika (so this is thee)

 "The Tea Party people say they're angry about socialism, but maybe they're really angry about capitalism.  If there's a sense of being looked down upon, it's that sense of failure that's built into a system that assures everyone can make it to the top, but then reserves the top only for a fraction of the strivers."
-Gail Collins

'merika, always was, and always will be:
an add up of its broken parts, the portrait of malice,
a scam of allegiance, the boldtype of callous.

'merika,
so this is thee:
to act, and think,
abysmally.

from heated up sea, and fruitless plain,
to chopped redwood tree, and droughted terrain,

tis' of thee, 'merica, most desperately:
to wave white sheeted flags in suburban crags,
preach megachurch drivel while most incomes shrivel,
and exchange good godliness
for the work of the devil.

you can keep your 'merika, sweating high blood pressure,
extended waistlines, and calloused fingers
under the banner of always low prices,
inhaling deeply
each media-made crisis,
fighting over which neighbor
isn't the nicest,
and propping up,
through lurid ignorance,
savage legislative devices.

'merika, always was, and always will be:
an add up of its broken parts, the portrait of malice,
a scam of allegiance, the boldtype of callous.

'merika, the fender-bent chevy truck, pass the buck
ran out of luck before the race even started-
sir walter raleigh's shipwrecked crew,
indentured to the malarial mystique of roanoke,
the errant dupes of mister john smith's folly,
forced to eat frozen human remains
in order to manifest someone else's destiny.

"daddy, this world tryin to get the besta me."

she can dream of a place, farther from here,
farther from 'merika, and its merciless muck,
where steel mills still work, and bosses give a fuck,
where communities commune, and crusaders don't crusade.

sure, vast fortunes are still being made
for the waltons, murdochs, and toby keith:
still, the most is for the least
amongst our numbers, suitlines creased
in that persistent,
pre-coital armani salute:
stashed inside a single briefcase,
because it can be, the diploma of your defeat
and beijing now owns
whatever's left of your savings,
whatever's left
of main street.


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