I Hear America Screaming
(Inspired by Walt Whitman)
I hear America screaming, the varied lies I daily hear,
Those of politicians, each one singing their own tune for each and themselves alone,
And in the background;
The soldier crying as the doctor measures his amputee leg,
The businessman singing as he makes his fortune off others misfortunes and then sails off & away to the Bahamas,
The single mother asking what she shall feed her starving children, praying every night
The old dying man mumbling, sleeping on the park bench, with no place left to go
The last animals dying as they breathe in the toxic fumes as they fall from the trees and wires
The union man’s song, the blue collar worker on his way in the morning,
Just to find the factory closed down
The beautiful singing of the daughter, or of the young wife taking care of her mother in her final days because she couldn’t afford a hospital at home
Each American singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, and never believing in sharing
For this day is what belongs to the day—the night always another beginning
Truth screaming with open mouths against an America in it’s very last glories and days
~ R.M.