The American Dream? – poem by Leela Soma
Tribes that stayed true to nature, Cherokee, Apache
Sioux overpowered decimated and sent to reservations
The red of their veins in the soil of the nation
The blue of the settler’s eyes reflected in the sky
The white of foaming rivers trailing in the ships
Of enslaved men, women and children from Africa
They built this nation forged in red, white and blue
The stars in the firmament laid witness to the
Stripes laid on souls of colour of every hue
Freedom, independence to a select few
Wealth and fortune amassed, wants unsatisfied
Needs of the rest ignored in the race to be on top
But will this nation value life more?
The innocent who perish by the gun
Slaughtered in vain, red stripes on virgin white
Renounce the right to bear arms?
replace it with the right to live in peace
Without weapons, in civilised harmony?
Born of the gun, by the gun, for the gun
Conceived in Liberty, that all men are equal
Is it the land of the free, and the home of the brave?
Leela Soma, June, 2015
This section: Leela Soma writing and blogging, stories and poems, Writing
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Find myself returning to Leela’s poem time and time again this year, for all the sad and wrong reasons. America’s blinkered approach to firearms, the west’s ignorance of other cultures and situations…. This poem just grabs it all.