One

This empty callous country of ghosts That has drained into a polluted ocean of regret Where vain venomous demons rise from the constitutional Sea Swallowing our political fire and passion Disabling our wounded words to abstain false promises Suffocating the breath of truth from our desperate voices Singing the stifled anthem - the ode of passivity To echo in hollow empty bunkers of helpless intent With dogma and doctrine that drives our ego To cannibalize its own usurped power Played out in the broken songs of sympathy Slain in the snow covered silent fortress of evil Our love of life now bitter, frozen and isolated Like the woes of the blind and deaf Addicted to apathy and led like sheep to the slaughter Can we remember our origins - our birthplace? Where men and women from different beginnings joined together Working through the potential of divergence Standing together on common ground for the common good Forming the brotherhood of man From every corner of the world The United States of Utopia A land of peace and understanding Of tolerance, forgiveness and compassion United within our destined kinship Honoring the union of all hearts, minds and human spirit Free to be One August 9, 2019 Eight Word Challenge Poetry Contest Sponsored by Emile Pinet