American Dream
The following is an original poem I wrote when lying sleepless and saddened by the events cascading across American media and pop culture in recent weeks. Perhaps I’m a little over-optimistic. But it’s something nice to shoot for when everything that surrounds you seems to drip with negativity and sadness. Here goes nothing.
Faded, cracked, crumbling
The American dream stands.
Angelically pure to some,
Stained white to others.
Opportunity and accomplishment,
Available to anyone who tries.
A true meritocracy,
When wearing the crown of bleach.
Seated in privilege,
Surrounded by ignorance.
Scorn cast towards any,
When disputing the idea of the dream.
The dream is white.
The dream is male.
The dream is straight.
The dream is privilege.
Color presents challenge,
Concern over intent and capability.
Color withholds advancement,
When it should promote unity.
Gender presents challenge,
Whether birth or choice or lack thereof.
Gender creates false ideology,
When it should create a pretty palette of thought.
Love presents challenge,
Because it sometimes produces hate.
Love is made to be two colors,
When it pulls from all of them.
Never do we see all,
Nor do all see everyone.
The best way to live the dream,
Is to share it with someone else.
Whether you clock in ahead,
Or lag behind the rest,
We are a country. A culture.
Bound together by parchment and history.
The race we are in,
Is not a race of speed and competition.
It's misconstrued, misviewed.
It always was the human race.
Strike aside the differences.
What you look like, what body parts you have.
Who you love, who you were raised with.
Open your heart.
The year is always changing,
1776 to 2016.
The dream is amorphous. Alive.
No longer rooted in traditional values.
Open your heart to color.
Open your heart to gender.
Open your heart to love.
Open your heart to each other.
Leaders offer promises,
Hope for new horizons.
Leaders try to speak for us.
But they are not us.
We are a people,
And the voice belongs to us.
Use caution towards granting others,
The power to speak for you.
Stand together, America.
Share the dream with each other.
