Sidney Beck Poet Kyrielle

America - the Melting Pot For Freedom

AMERICA  -  THE MELTING POT FOR FREEDOM



I know, as you do, that there is no man who 
Wouldn’t trade his rice bowl empty and dry 
Or his barrio hut and the tse tse fly
And say thank God for America


No girl who wouldn’t trade third-wife-in-the-tent,
And her work in the kraal, lifelong graft,  *
To board an  aircraft as a drowner grabs a life-raft
And say thank God for America


Watch her slip her bonds unbound,  west to where her future’s found
The freedom girl fast bound to America by knots untied
Soon she will be an equal, and his bowl will be plied
They say thank God for America


Different but equal, all allowed to grow where they can,
No gatekeeper stops their hopes, stills their tongue,
They have become American, their spirit is  young
They say thank god for America


The rain falls on each equally, and the sun likewise
Their hopes can flourish along with those of others
Old hatreds are replaced with the ways of brothers
Say thank God for America

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Written for Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen's 
Contest "America, the Melting Pot for Freedom"

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NOTE

* The word  "graft"  in my British English simply means "hard labour"

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