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Great Nation

Great Nation



How our eyes have since turned to you
Prayed for your magnificent and proud banner
Its promise of liberty and freedom
Equality for all within its great nation

The saviors who came to defended life with life
In the defense of our freedoms
How the world owed such a debt of honor
To the sacrifices made by such a courageous people

Those were the times of indomitable old glory
When liberties torch burned bright for the entire world to see

How then did this undoubted pride fall to paranoia and fear
In such a vast land so brave and so free
Did the foundations of the great nations dream
Then feel so rickety

Did they rest all to unsteadily
On the human slaughtered red native skins
Or slip on the blood black peoples backs of slavery
Perhaps all the empty barrels of whale oil sent you tumbling

Did they become a sickness in your heart
Branded by burning crosses and one time apartheid
Born of racial supremacy and the idiocy of ethnic hate
Or was it some fanaticism of a religious elite

Is it now birthed in the guns that roam your streets
Forgotten and hidden in the trash alleys of capitalism
Supped on by the poor quivering mouths of soup kitchens
Dieing on the lips of uneducated children

Sweating on the brows of three dollars an hour Mexicans
While your foot print was placed on the moon
Could the ***** celebrate under its boot
Can the Indian reclaim the land that was once theirs

Did you ever repay the debt that you owe them
Or just bury them beneath your foundations 

Great Nation your voice once rang out to up lift the world
But now dies in the eyes of so many new drugs
Painting the lie of it all in a camera tricks celluloid
All glitter and glitz ticker tape parade antics  
 
Great Nation how our eyes have since turned to you
Searching for every promise you made to the world
Now lost in the unseen barbed wire of defended boarders
It was such a vast land so brave and so free 

How then did your undoubted pride fall to paranoia and fear
It was such a vast land so brave and so free
How did the foundations of such a great nations dream
Then feel so rickety

Copyright © Colin Mitchell Williams | Year Posted 2009

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Julian Lebaron Date: 6/2/2009 9:02:00 PM Great poem , im just reading the book by Eduardo Galeana; The open veins of Latin America, Hugo Chavez gave this book to Obama, still i think the only real solution to the problem of injustice is to recognize that no matter how much power, authority, or influence one person may have, that person still has exactly the same rights as the weakest innocent person, therefore there has to be a just punishment for crime for all or freedom losses its only defense. Login to Reply

Charmaine Chircop Date: 5/31/2009 7:53:00 AM this speaks loud and true-injustice never ends in all nations and that is sad--well penned--charma Login to Reply

Carolyn Devonshire Date: 5/28/2009 3:42:00 PM The "Great Nation" has a past that we'd often like to deny, Colin. You touch on many of the injustices that have been perpetrated on people of many races who have been used as stepping stones to perpetuate the illusion of grandeur. Surely our foundations should feel "rickety" when you consider what has been sacrificed. Amazing writing, Colin. Historical poems always capture my attention, but this one I will read again and again. Love, Carolyn Login to Reply

Debbie Guzzi Date: 5/28/2009 2:46:00 PM "humans slaughtered" "Or slip on the bloody black skin of slaves" "Sweating on the brows of three dollar an hour migrant Mexicans" ...screams for the alliteration..you know how i like it LOL.."While your white male footprint is permantly placed on the moon" "Could the Negro celebrate under this Liberties boot?" .."in a cameras trick celluliod"...Collin my take on it was when Democracy became Capitalizm..sigh EXCELLENT VERSE Light & Love Login to Reply

Christopher Higgins Date: 5/28/2009 2:38:00 PM Ok, Colin you should have just called me higher in my writing.. I have decided to put all my poems in the shredder..are you kidding me brother man..this was power from the get go...Sweating on the brows of three dollars an hour Mexicans While your foot print was placed on the moon Could the Negro celebrate under its boot Can the Indian reclaim the land that was once theirs....this is deep, powerful, mind blowing and incredible writing....have a cold one on me...I am going back to the lab. Login to Reply