Requiem For America
America the beautiful, where are your friends?
They have left you to find some other ends;
You who once stood for all that was right,
Are now only seen as a fading light.
You once were the head but now are the tail,
For greatness you had has now grown pale;
Once on top now great is your fall,
The taste has turned as bitter as gall.
Your birth was filled with blessings received,
You never gave thanks and now are deceived;
By every measure your prestige was great,
But a new day has come and the hour is late.
Whence comes the money to fight every war,
In faraway lands you couldn't ignore;
But you had an interest to protect what was yours,
In spite of the fact your bedfellows were whores.
Now that they see your purse running dry,
They leave you, deceive you and you wonder why;
For fields are far greener in other places,
And smiles more friendly on foreign faces.
You never listened or heeded the call,
Now it is dreadful to watch as you fall;
You now stand naked who once were so fair,
Your sins exposed; your travesty bare.
Your pristine waters have turned to mud,
Your endless wars brought only shed blood;
Your boundless fields of golden grain,
Now withered away from lack of rain.
Internal rot and external blight,
Driven by pride to take your might;
The debts you owe that you now can't pay,
As you went perversely your stubborn way.
The storms and floods have washed away
Blessings and love you had yesterday;
What is left but greed and crime,
That follow your footsteps till the end of time.
You live in denial and can’t face the cost,
And now you reap the emptiness of loss;
The rest of your neighbours, who follow your quest,
Will find that they too will lose their rest.
Copyright © Elizabeth Wesley | Year Posted 2011
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