Dear America

Dear America,

I miss our sunlit days and endless lawns,

The way dusk lit up our concrete suburb.

We held hands in the perfumed grass that night.

My heart pounded, I didn’t want to lose you.

Your flag was printed on popsicles

Patriotism exploded in the air.

We went to bed proud.

America,

They said you were spun from antebellum peaches,

teacups sinking into gunpowder victory soil.

They said you were a floating utopia of progress

(They neglected to mention the marbled spines of slaves, the woven filigree that keeps you suspended)

Dear America,

You are splitting us open,

I have never seen so many hands reaching for the same mother organ,

The same fallen, defenseless skin,

You devour in the name of cell clusters,

Of badges glinting with gore.

Dear America,

You are collapsing in on yourself,

Your silken mounds soaked heavy once but now oppression wrings you out,

last night there was a rainstorm, and I swear I saw red, and lost silken threads mingled with the downpour.

America,

you are giving into bleach, the dismantling of things,

soon there will be nothing left of you.

Dear America,

I remember the way your salt left love notes on my skin.

I didn't want to wash them off.

We stayed in a suspended magnolia dream,

Since then I've been trying to find my way back to it.

America,

You were my first true love.

Dear America,

I think I loved the idea of you,

Seeped myself in your daisy brightness,

Let the glare of its sink slow behind my eyes.

I ignored your numerous bodies, the hidden oil fumes.

I couldn't let the encroaching corruption destroy who I wanted you to be.

Last night I stared in the mirror and saw you in the harsh bathroom fluorescents.

I think I saw you fully.

 

This poem is about: 
Me
My country
Poetry Terms Demonstrated: 

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