Meant To Be

America has never been
What it was meant to be
A golden land with arms outstretched
With endless opportunity

(It is a land of plentiful wheat, plentiful poverty.)

I’ve studied carefully the lives
Of hungry men sustained by dreams
Who perpetuate innocent, ancient lies
Of freedom and democracy

(Who worship a cold green gifted statue, her head haloed by a crown of hypocrisy.)

And I’ve watched through disillusioned eyes
As millions solemnly speak
Beneath the shade of endless flags
Patriotic prayers they were trained to repeat

(The insatiable hunger of one mighty kingdom, eating itself alive, falling apart along tribal fault lines, one people, melted in a posturing pot of promises, hurt by so much hopeless hope, wondering how so many souls became so cold and soulless, longing for the warm delusions of youth.)

And I’ve heard as well the mournful cries
Of men made slaves to man-made machines
Who painfully, calmly calculate
The sweat needed to manifest
their meager destinies  

(What is the price of blood, of sweat, of sleep, to a weary worker, a widowed mother, a pair of calloused hands, a lonely dying man, innumerable proud patriots suffering similar sicknesses beneath the same expanse of stars?)

I’ve considered, too, with a heavy heart
The millions who try to redeem
The glowing checks written and
Signed
By an unshakable American dream

(How many sacrifices were made for the polluted soil that endless souls have toiled upon, how many aging arms have been thrust up towards the ageless sky at the end of a long and laborious life, revealing nothing in their palsied palms but well-worn callouses?)

Are not revolutionary hearts the most painfully patriotic?  
Are not the desperate longings for change
A naive, innocent, angry attempt
To hold America accountable
For all the beautiful, hideous fabrications
Woven into the fabric of its existence?

America has never been what it was meant to be
But still, with red blood, white rage, blue veins,
I believe that it could be
I believe we could make America
What it has never been
What it was meant to be
I believe