Wachet Auf!

A Poem by Austin_Meehan

Wachet Auf!

An ignorant grasp is something like,

A disapproving glance,
A feeling of being under a sickening trance.
Wachet auf!

Before you can run off,

But they reach out,

With that ignorant grasp,

That sweet soothing rasp.

They have you in such a tight clasp,

That your lungs are squeezed and there is no room to breathe.

You gasp,

Break free and seeth.

Their voices, no matter how evil,

Will always pull you back and turn you around,

“We give back to those in need!”

They say these things while everybody is clashing,

People are slashing,

While those billionaires are cashing,

The big check from their Wall Street job.

The world is full of liars,
People bathed in gold and oh so admired.

They are the American Dream,

But most of us know by now,

That it is people like you that killed it.
Along with meaningful lyrics,

And a dope delivery,

You also killed the idea of chivalry.
People like you,

The 1 percent who own more than their share,

Treat men like me,

Almost as if we are no more than garbage.

We say this is unfair,

We write our mournful songs.
“Oh do you have the time, to listen to me whine?”

Wachet Auf!

Oh I voted for some change,

And now it’s all I got in my coat pocket,

Besides my hands, and this silly little locket.

But hey, now that I am oh so broken down,

This would be a good time,

To mention that the beautiful ol’ crown,

Will always be in the hands,

Of the richest man in the land.

The American Dream is dead,

And it has been for a long time.

It is gone,
The time has passed along,

And I didn’t write a song,

I wrote about an ignorant grasp,

And a faithful contradiction,
A treacherous loyalty,
And a final honest lie,

That the American Dream hasn’t died.

© 2018 Austin_Meehan

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Featured Review

Nicole

I really like this! I love the build up, all throughout the poem it's a very depressed, defeated atmosphere (from what I got anyway) and then you end with "And a final honest lie, That the American Dream hasn't died." LOVE THAT! I feel like the tempo is good too, pretty quick and good rhythm, it fits well with your word choice.

Posted 6 Years Ago

1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

6 Years Ago

Thank you so much Nicole! I am glad that you enjoyed the poem and I hope you look at some of my othe.. read more

6 Years Ago

I definitely felt the tempo. It was done expertly and the rhythm is almost melodic. I will absolutel.. read more

Reviews

Paul Bell

Something tells me the American dream will go on forever.
The dollars will trickle down eventually.
The poor won't be there to benefit from this trickle, mind you.
But it's bound to be in the epitaph somewhere.
Great write.

Posted 6 Years Ago

rogeramericanwriter

I like it. Your poem shows talent and creativity! Nice mix of poetic form with substantive ideas . . .

I'm not sure if it's typo but fourth line from the bottom reads "An faithful contradiction". Did you mean "And"? (We only use "an" in front of a word beginning with a vowel). Just mentioning . . . it's a fine poem but a small syntactical error right before the end could affect an English purist judge negatively . . .

What kind of writing are you doing in your AP class? Is this just for fun/academic exercise or do want to become a writer and/or enter a related field? (journalism, etc.) -RR