Oh, beautiful for spacious skies…
For amber waves of grain
Such a picturesque view of our nation
One house
Deeply divided
Struggling to live
Surviving on prayers and take out
With millions seeking solace from
No job
No care
No sign tomorrow could be better.
For purple mountains majesty
Above the fruited plains
Father and child
Brother and sister
Reach out to show love or
In need of warmth
Only to find masks and distance and one dimension screens;
No substitute for a three-dimensional embrace
America, America
God shed his grace on thee
Or me or you or anyone with less
For we are feeling unblessed, distressed, obsessed
in such a mess
Without highways for cruising
Sports for bruising
Or parks for smooching like in the
back seat of a 57 Chevy, longing for
those days gone, that will exist no more
And crown thy good
With brotherhood
and sisterhood – do we look out for one another
Or look askance at one another
Are our doors open or
have we closed up shop with only enough left
to cover our own assets
In the end, is what divides us more overwhelming
than what unites us and keeps us grounded
in these times of burning and freezing
From sea to shining sea
Have we lost sight of one nation – under god
Filled with hope and anticipation
and prayers for a better life.
States fight states fight feds
Counties fight parishes fight cities
politics squabble, races battle
genders – identities are at sixes and sevens
Our confinement only enhances the strife
We miss our connections at airports and train stations
at lunches and dinners and phone conversations
We throw bricks and guns and tear gas
and Molotov or other cocktails in each other’s Facetime
And wonder, when alone - how we lost
America the Beautiful