America the beautiful

But is she really?

America the beautiful

Cries a weeping mother

Whose son is no more

 

She demands love, demands honor

Demands respect without question

While her people cry

Cry for love, cry for honor

Cry for respect earned by blood and sweat

 

She demands high standards

So few can truly meet, and then

As her people plead for the standards to lower

She shrugs

“That’s just how it is”

 

America’s beauty is in the eye of the beholder

The white, male, cisgender, straight, able, neurotypical beholder

Cover up the hideous truth

Paint it in stars and stripes and sing of amber waves of grain

To honor a country built on ruined lives

 

So many, left behind, forgotten, ignored

So many screaming to be heard

And yet, the silence smothers it all

Raise your voice, raise your banners, scream to the world

Scream

 

I am here

I am real

Do not forget me

Do not brush me to the side

My voice matters

 

Make

Them

Listen

 

Until they can no longer push you aside

Until the rose tint fades from their eyes

Until the world is revealed for what it is

And America comes to life

And America becomes beautiful once more