we are America
Where are you, America?
Where is the dream that brought the endless, teeming masses to your shore?
Where is the lamp you lit and held beside the golden door?
Where is the tough, free spirit that cut across a country to the world?
Where is the pride that filled each one of us each time the flag unfurled?
Where is our past — the kindling brought together in an incandescent spark?
Where is our future — now that our great flame is dwindling into dark?
Oh, America
Enormous, sweet, improbably country
So drunk with the wine of freedom
You splash it from your glass and pour it on the ground.
Proud, mighty country, bound in chains of our own making.
Only we could shackle you so;
Only we could mute your song
To such a timid, lonely sound.
And where is God? The God we trusted in so long?
And how has right become so hard to tell from wrong?
Are the Dream, and the Light, forever dead?
Wait.
Wait now.
See the way that roughneck holds his head.
There’s something there — something felt, but never said.
A tight smile on his lips, steel in his eye
Nothing between me and God but a thousand miles of sky.
And he is America.
In the howling wind on a western slope
A farmer sweats, planting seed and hope.
And he is America.
And in some God-forgotten sad café,
For too much work, too little pay,
The one who gladly pulls her weary body up
To bring a smile, and pour another cup,
She is America.
And you…
And I…
We are America.
For the Dream and the Light
That was born in the souls
Of a handful of Scots, and Frenchmen and Poles
Of Irish and English and Chinese and Dutch
Outcasts, and slaves, and rebels and such
Has quietly passed through history
To three hundred million of you and me.
Rise.
Lift up your heart.
Stand.
Make a new start.
Move.
Reach out for a star.
Now.
Start right where you are.
Dream.
There’s a world for the winning.
Act.
Make a brand new beginning.
We can still make that dream come true;
We can still do it — me and you.
For this country’s whatever we make her to be,
And we can do anything — you and me.
We can lift that lamp back to the sky
For we are America —
You and I.
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.