Endless small towns
Full to the brim with American flags and bad food
All that time and all that television
This is the real America
Where the American slow death plays itself out over football seasons
And raking the leaves
All that heritage
Depressed shells of the American Dream (copyright) they tried to be
No one told them it was a joke
The joke was on them and that the American Dream (all rights reserved)
Is only for the few and that the rest can just chase it
Serve their time chasing in the tortured land of beautiful fugitives
Proud suppliers to the American Machine (trademark): soldier boys, food, patriotic air, good sturdy racism and a raging separatist spirit
America is a nomad
A bastard
A criminal
Cut loose in their own vast country to wander and wage war
Always lost
Always homeless
Come and go
America never notices: body bag or
Business class.
You put me in mind of 'America' by Allen Ginsberg. The one with the immortal 'go fuck yourself with your atom bomb' line...
ReplyDeleteVery Good Daniel and hugely appropriate!
ReplyDeleteAmerica worked, once, because it believed in the power of its people.
ReplyDeleteThat's mostly gone, coasting mainly on inertia, now that we've replaced believing in people with believing in money. In America these days, money trumps everything. There is no problem these days that we dont believe cannot be solved by money, either by spending it or by hoarding it.
We're a nation of spoiled rich kids, convinced the trust fund will never run out. We're probably doomed, at least for the current generation. Hopefully our children will be smarter, but we'll probably ruin them with stories of our stolen glory. Perhaps their kids will wise up.
Well written.
ReplyDeleteReminded me of Lou Reed's great song about New York: 'Romeo and Juliet'.
(extracted..)
I'll take Manhattan in a garbage bag
with Latin written on it that says
"it's hard to give a shit these days"
Manhattan's sinking like a rock
into the filthy Hudson what a shock
they wrote a book about it
they said it was like ancient Rome
As an American patriot AND a writer, I enjoyed this poem very much. Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteHave you read The People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn? If not, you'd like it.
--Matthew Mientka
An interesting read Daniel. Despite the difference in the peoples in the US and here, the number of parallels are noticeable. Some time, and maybe not too far off, some in these parts could be in for a nasty shock.
ReplyDeleteGOD BLESS AMERICA!
ReplyDelete