"2 Other Colors & Mostly Blues" February 5, 2012
Due to mass neglect of kindness and respect
henceforth all patriotic songs and anthems
shall be performed in the blues fashion.
'Cause, America, you don't remember lovin'
and I'd rather go blind than say it's alright.
We break up, we break down, we break,
and if you think you're lonely now
wait until you finish ripping yourself apart psychologically.
The thrill feels gone away and, my country, 'tis for thee I sigh
when you act toward yoo ess us so uncivilized.
I've been loving you too long to stop now, but
we're getting too old for this shit, my love.
----------------------------------------------------
It helps me sometimes to put my feelings about this country in the frame of a relationship - especially when I'm feeling rather critical and need to put that criticism into context. I love music in general and the blues in specific because it has this way of making even heavy, individual misfortune feel communal and less burdensome. You needn't have experienced the specific pain within the lyrics to be put there almost immediately. I have never heard church bells ringing and a choir singing, seen my love walk down the aisle and on her finger place a ring, seen them holding hands, or seen her standing there with my man, but I sure as hell feel Etta when she lays all that out then sings "Each word was a pain in my heart. All I could was cry." So, anyway, this poem was a nod to the blues and a complicated love for, not an abstract concept of nation or space between lines on a map, but a collection of over 300 million people. There are references to Etta James, Bobby Womack, B.B. King, and Otis Redding lyrics.
