I Remember...

This is a poem I wrote as I watched yet another job be sent overseas and a friend lost a paycheck he had been earning for twenty years. Its a look back at a better time with the obvious question of what happened?

I remember when I was young,

This was before America was being sold for the highest bid,

There was a town where a tornado devastated it,

And we all got together for a few months and rebuilt it.

 

I remember hearing old people say ‘back in the day’,

And hearing the pride in the tales they’d weave my way,

About a country where Americans came first,

We supposedly took care of our own first and foremost.

 

There were sayings like “Clean up your own backyard”,

And “America, Home of the Free”,

Which I’m lost when it comes to their meanings,

As New Orleans is still waiting to be cleaned.

 

I remember when Presidents were people who didn’t lie,

You looked up to them and trusted them without batting an eye,

Now I just look up at the sky asking God why,

We’re in a war based on one of their lies.

 

I used to believe that our taxes took care of American needs,

Then I read that more money is needed for false pleas,

As our own people go back to homeless camps in bare feet,

And farmers are paid for not planting seeds.

 

I remember when being American meant being proud,

Not forgetting about us when politics come around,

So let’s remind our government who they work for,

And maybe a map so they can find the proper shore.

 

 

April 14, 2007

@Bradley S. Hartman

www.bradleyshartman.com

 

Reviews

[Silent Kim aka mizmetap..]

Nice poem, gets right to the heart of things. America, a old w***e who sold her better days. Now she lives on the use to be, greed her fuel.