America The Not-So-Beautiful | Teen Ink

America The Not-So-Beautiful

April 10, 2021
By RainyDaze GOLD, Oswego, Illinois
RainyDaze GOLD, Oswego, Illinois
10 articles 0 photos 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
A recent change is better than no change at all


America The Not-So-Beautiful
O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
Oh, tell me, when it all turned gray
Above corruption rains

America, America
I shed another tear for thee
As you build another hood
To cast the misunderstood
From sea to tainted sea

We don’t know the rest of the words
Only chant the first verse
Too busy with second jobs, thirds
To busy fighting for rights we deserve

America, hysteria
We have to claw and saw
To dig ourselves out of the hole
Of the rights they stole
What happened to justice for all

We have so many mountains to move
Of women and black lives
And those who love who they love
But we will outlast the strifes

Holding out cause we have to be fighters
Keep falling down, keep rising up again
Trying to get inside after being outsiders
Not all Americans are white, cishet men

Try to break down our walls, break down the barricades
Certified freedom fighters, we don’t need the accolades
Put us all down to try to keep us calm, keep us tame
Cause they’re starting to realize we’re more than pawns in their game

And this isn’t a case of a metaphorical race
We’re not trying to place, we’re just looking for grace
You say in God we trust because in them we don’t
If our higher ups need a higher power, who keeps us afloat?


And I waited and choked
On all the lies that you smoked
Came up revoked our rights unprovoked
Then you sat there and joked
At the fire you stoked
You roped us in and we coped
And we waited and hoped
You’re upsetters and we’re not forgetters
But if we didn’t care about this land
We wouldn’t try to make it better

America, America
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine


The author's comments:

I was decided to write this piece after all of the shootings and discrimination taking place. This poem goes out to all of those who have been hurt by the way our country is run<3


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This article has 1 comment.


Lydiaq ELITE said...
on May. 3 2021 at 7:20 pm
Lydiaq ELITE, Somonauk, Illinois
179 articles 54 photos 1026 comments

Favorite Quote:
The universe must be a teenage girl. So much darkness, so many stars.<br /> --me

I like how you ended this with hope.