Did you know this was a protest song
about Vietnam?
Yet it’s blasting on the speakers
at the 4th of July street party.
(I was born
in the USA)
I was born
way after Vietnam
but I’ve been around for Iran,
Ukraine, Gaza, Afghanistan
(I was born
in the USA)
and the wars are so
pointless,
why are we killing
anyone
again?
(well, it’s revenge.
Or money.
Or both.
More important
than life, don’t you know.)
Did you know
the Declaration of Independence
only applied to white male landowners
when they wrote it?
Did you know the US Constitution
was based on the laws of the
Haudenosaunee Confederacy?
(sanitize the patriotism,
just two hundred fifty years of
sanctioned bliss)
People’ve been living here
for millennia
but you don’t hear those stories,
there’s people still fighting for their rights
but you don’t want to hear those stories
(I was born
in the USA)
And now we’re gonna
fight another war
killing without a point,
at least if you’re going to
clean the ugly past,
use a knife to do it
instead of a bomb
so you can smell
the blood on your hands
(I was born
in the USA
so I’m flexing my freedom
to write a critique
on the limits
of our freedom,
does that exercise
make you mad?)
I was born
in the USA,
land of the free
for somebody.
***
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header photo by Benjamin Lehman on Pexels.com
Jordyn Saelor 