in a country where so many are struggling,
they simply tell us to “work harder.”
well, i am tired of the narrative that this global superpower made it that easy to achieve a dream.
the same dream so many humans travel for— through seas of souls left behind in a desert, scorching their skin with horrors seen only on television, and the potential of making up for all that pain and loss in self-made wealth.
a country that stands for freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. a country that will take an immigrant and make them work to the bone, sore muscles that are wasting away sooner than yours, america, yet he remains.
he takes his children to work and pays his taxes.
he dedicates his life to the same god you speak for.
he never thinks it is unfair to live in such stagnation caused by lack of education and right to live in a country that’s become more his home than where he was birthed.
his children belong to you, america. all of them do their best under the conditions life granted them. you decide if they get to eat lunch at school or if they get to have a home and stability. you decide if their parents get to stay in the country, if they are mentally equipped for parenthood, if they belong. you decide what each child deserves based on their wealth, skin, love.
a country needs to guarantee equal treatment, equal rights. you claim this is so, but i have seen otherwise from those you’ve stolen and murdered.
your native people were slaughtered, you took away agency from those you deemed “less than.” you killed off resources and killed her cultures. a whole group of people cannot go back to where they were taken from because they no longer know their ancestors’ customs. you turn a blind eye to children murdered, praying for them and blaming mental illness and people of color. you pray for them, and you mock thousands of people that look to you for protection. thoughts and prayer should fix a burning bridge.
you made me see the unfairness of my life and how much i internalized this pain. i was a child and knew you would not save me from poverty. i was a child and knew you would never heal the scars passed on from peers that sneers slurs and tell me to leave the only country i ever knew.
america, you broke my heart when i was a child. i couldn’t trust in you because of the world i saw. i hope to make enough money to finally live your grandest promise: the american dream.
you made me see your indifference in piling bodies of babies. i see how much you cry for those in utero, and i cannot believe you love them either. why is an unborn child worth more than a whole life we already established on earth? why are the children of my people and my fellow humans ostracized and told that “not everything is about race.” you know damn well the success of a handful of well off children undermines the collective happiness of all children you hold against your body.
you use all these children as a shield to continue your sick and dying patriotism that will defile our skin more than uplift, america. you allow the circumstances that cause humans to turn against each other, hoping they will never unite.
it’s a simple wish, you might say.
a wish that all the people i have wronged will never turn on me.
i believe your sitting with your puppets in your white home, content and self-assured. you force lady liberty to take in the pain of the people she represents. you count the money you got from the drugs rushing through your people’s bloodstreams. you remain silent.
time won’t answer for you. it will only unravel your mess. justice will not stumble— it will condemn your sin.
america, i hope your people unite and fight against your reign of oppression.
i hope we will never be forgotten.
