“America, America” + Audio

By: Dana Bahng

 America, America.

 you take our hands, crunch the bones,

say “i love you”, “here is your freedom.”

but America, we say this is not freedom,

the truth does not wait for anyone.

your iron grip is full of strength but not

care, the wisdom of our forefathers

hides in the shadow of your indifference. oh, America,

tell me, can you see? by the dawn’s early light?

in the absence of your loving presence,

we turn against one another, pitted, flaxen

vertigo. we strike out blindly. pain unmatched,

pay unmatched, unequal, no sequel. communities

torn apart by status, levels, mountains

leveled without recompense. you left

so many behind. turned a

blind eye; silenced the eagle.

you ignore the screams, turn your

back on the cries as you light

fireworks. ignore the chains taken on

by the back of human suffering,

resent the truth. why do you resent

the truth? does it hurt you to see

all the ways our nation has run

off the railroad tracks? how our

wheels screech on the plateau,

hurtling towards nowhere?

America, America, there,

there. it seems we need to

guide you back to the right path

and i promise, we promise. this

generation, twenty hundreds, we

have had enough. it is time

to acknowledge, to receive. as a

parent must tell their child,

clutched in their arms,

“it is for your own good.”

America, you may say you love,

and you give, and you see,

but America, this is not freedom.

this is a nation torn, divided,

thrown to the wayside for

electability and appeal.

this is a nation damaged,

dysfunctional. accountability

should be a given, but the people

are forced to scream for it. bleed

for it, for justice has lost its footing in

your storm. oh, what a tragedy, a

travesty. America, open your eyes.

justice has no place in a system

protecting the status quo, no accountability

in a system built to exclude. for 

the only people with the privilege

to cherish current policies are those

who benefit, those who fall outside of the

shooting range. wide eyes, plugged ears.

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses

yearning to breathe free, The

wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

America, what happened? it was

only a few centuries ago that you

kissed the persecuted upon their lips;

now you hold the gun to their head.

America, America, you take my hands,

play your anthem over the PA system.

every screen whispers sweet nothings,

rejecting, deflecting, and all i feel is

sickly shame. where did you go? i

miss you, but i have realized that

the you i have heard about my

whole life may not be you. i wonder

if the real you is hiding, despairing,

thrown to the curb because the truth

no longer suited the powerful. because

the truth stained their silkscreen of history.

because, America, your bold, beautiful ideals

were too much for their power. dazzling, threatening.

America, we will find you. reach into the cracks, broken

earth and shadow, and pull you back into the light. America,

we are searching for you. America, can you hear us? oh, please

let freedom ring, we’ve been begging for it….. yet i’ve learned over

the past few months that the path to truth lies in policy, not signalling.

no more black squares. it is time for reform. time for change, not paint on

beaten asphalt, it is time for redemption. America, i cannot promise you success,

i cannot promise that the future will rise up and carry your name out of the thicket. but

i pray these burning threnodies, the echo of them, will ring. wings spread, sing out, “America, America”…