America the "Great"

America

The home of the free

The home of the brave

Devoid of the racists, sexists and slaves

Or so they've told us since we were so small

That we stood on tiptoes to peek over desks, turn the pages of books with odd shapes called letters

And they told us that one day we would understand

That one day we would hold the greatest nation on earth on our shoulders

With wide eyes, we saw ourselves to be the Greek Atlas, strong and fierce

Holding up a sky of nationalist expectations 

With time we learned to distinguish "greatness" from "perfection"

As colored kids who helped carve our sandbox structures on the playground

Felt the sting of isolation

And flinched to hear middle-school jokes of "fast running" paired with "stolen TVs"

We hunched over our books, heads too far down

To notice as our classmates slowly disappeared

And left drop-outs, pregnant teens and working students to the wolves

While girls who had made it, holding math and engineering degrees in hand 

Used their skills to multiply decimals and male salaries together to discover society's idea of their worth

At the age of 50, we broke our chains of student debt

And flipped through magazines of opportunity with wrinkled hands

We turned off the news of gun violence, xenophobic leaders and world disputes 

And turned to the smiling faces of our grandchildren

Ignorant of America's faults and mishaps

Hoping that they would not hold up the sky, but rather, fix it.