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

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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.

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

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

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

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.