America
Inspired by "Standing in the Shadow of Love" by the Four
Tops
Heather Taylor
I'll do time if I stand in line to protest this democracy. Make
signs, march in time to a beat of underground movements ready
to pounce on a mis-said word, action, deed. Screaming freedom,
smelling teargas, sitting in jail because we forgot, thought
a democracy meant equal rights, a chance not life in a jail cell
for peaceful protest for no reason but being there. This state
of policy turning us into a police state.
He says: We need to track terrorists.
He says: We need to protect our citizens.
He says: We need to defend our liberty.
In a church, in a town, in the middle of wide open places I
check in men, in women, in families. Faces clouded, fleeing from
lives unseen within our borders. Our cocoon wrapping is what
they search for, a new beginning, a new life, as men with federal
badges search the papers, search the files, search their lives
because of their foreignness, their differences, their threat.
For me it’s horror, disgust at the filtering, an idea of
being patriotic but to those families, to them it’s like
they’re still home.
He says: We have reached a time for hope.
He says: We are confident in the future
He says: Our country is the greatest nation on earth.
I’m surrounded by suburbia. A perfect suburbia until the
plant shuts down, files out, abandons us. All the windows in
my neighbourhood turn to broken teeth. A lit street fades to
a few fireflies. Friends move out, move on, sink in while
He says: I’ll work to build a nation of justice
He says: I’ll work to build a nation of opportunity.
He says: The American dream is alive.
My friends, father, brothers, cousins, sisters, mothers, sons,
march as cannon fodder for single minded walking time bombs,
not minding what faces as long as they turn faceless. No one
knows why they are there, a generation of people who just want
to come home.
He says: We have a calling from beyond the stars
He says: The cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and
the victory - overwhelming.
He says: We need to stand for freedom
Standing in the Shadow of love, we wave our flag, pledge allegiance,
erect towers, monuments, remembrance of people missing, maimed
slaughtered. We wear pins, t-shirts, badges our hearts on our
sleeve, we wait by the TV, radio, polling station to make a difference,
make our choice, forget the heat of the sun as we stand in endless
shadow.
And he says: Do you? Do you? Do you love this country as much
as I do?
Heather Taylor
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