Oh America
You wonder, you
The Land of all the Free
(So long as you’re born all of
Straight, cis, white and he)
We pledge allegiance
To the bones
We pledge to all the fallen
We the people pledge
To avenge who you’ve forgotten
For today
We woke up barren
Woke up stripped and beaten backwards
We watched the world we knew before
Be overcome with fractures
You set
A slippery slope in motion
Allow us to strike a match
At this point we can throw
The goddamn country down the hatch
How dare you
Oh my country
Oh my country ‘tis of thee
How dare you take my right to choose
And claim it was for me
The depths
That we have fallen
Have us teetered on the edge
Of civil war, of flames and forks
Of “We will have revenge!”
What voice and passion resonates in Oh America! I’ve read it through over and over and what hits me the hardest is the line □let’s strike a match… a reversal that is so far reaching that while I watch what individual states are deciding tonight… tears come. Thank you for writing this poem.