A child is born in Amerika
by dan Saturday, Apr 9 2011, 11:05am
international / poetry / post

As a child you brutally abused me,
physically and psychologically
to keep me on the ‘straight and narrow,’
it was ‘for my own good,’ you said
but you were blind to the fact that
the universe is limitless and
expands in every direction!

As an adolescent you taught me
that my awakening body was ‘filthy,’
its natural tendencies and sensations
were to be shunned, loathed and repressed
when all around me terrestrial life flourished
in natural harmony.

As a young adult you taught me that
I was indebted to the nation for everything
it had ‘given me;’
I had responsibilities, you said!
You put a gun in my hand
and taught me to kill for peace and democracy;
so I repaid my debt by murdering our 'enemies’
and ruining their land and nations --
I did it to ‘keep us safe!’

I did my duty and returned home
to work for the Corporations
until they outsourced my job
and made me redundant.

I learned to live on crumbs
left from the banquet tables of the rich
but I did not complain, because I had been taught
that America was just and fair,
it was other nations that made slaves
of their populations.

I was taught that my plight was due
to personal failings not an inherently unfair
system; I needed to try harder
to become a success.

One day I lost my wife and child
in a ‘terrorist’ attack;
a citizen of the nation in which I had fought
had sworn to avenge His
slaughtered family.

But that war was just
I had been told, as are all the wars
our nation wages -- God is on OUR side,
I had been assured.

Today I am a broken and ruined man;
my doctor says I can feel proud
that I ‘achieved something;’
I had lost my sanity and everything
I held dear to keep our nation safe.

In my twilight years
I wear my medals proudly
and put my hand on my heart when
the anthem plays
they let me raise and lower the flag
in the old people's home
where I live with all my friends.