JULY 4, 2008
America's independence, her blessed sovereignty bursting at the seams!
This year’s commemoration will feel no different for me than the last;
Inglorious detonations heaving skyward like a sequence of car bombs,
Rockets red glare lighting the sky! O! How I tremble for my country!
JULY 4, 2007
The people readied themselves for the celebration; burgers, hot dogs, refreshments, and beer, but ahead of their gleeful caravan was mankind’s lies and grime that the wind dropped until the unbearable stench was hard upon them.The grave spirits wept of the fading justice, tears tilted their red cheeks into the pungent air opening the fear-filled and stinking carriage, lowering the trappings across the doldrums.
They stood, one next to the other, smiling in quiet optimism as the odor drifted through and crawled up their expectant noses making bed in the deep ruts left by the torrent of recent wars.
The spirits had not meant to overstay their welcome.
They had not meant to disillusion.
(But the world’s people are so pliable, so tired, that even expected news rocks them back.)
Monuments of sacrifice on that day split open like melons, exposing the battered hearts gasping at the shock of dishonor standing limbless before them.
They never imagined the disease would find them so easily, yet its stench fell freely, flooding the dried up land.
How could this have happened, they shrieked!
We love our dear country!
We took all the necessary precautions:
sunscreen, fireworks, USA T-shirts, shotguns, the bible, ice, extra towels and coolers, ice-cream, apple-pie, the American flag, sunglasses, and reusable cups.
JULY 4, 2006
I compel you to love your country.
To draw her into your arms ever so tenderly,
To embrace her softly, dearly to your heart,
To huddle close, near together her masses,
And sense her least sustained yearning.
I compel you to love your country.
A nation that lifted the breast of humanity
Caressing it tenderly toward equality’s rapture
With gentle fingers of selfless, searing desire
Exploring over her ever toward paradise.
I compel you to love your country.
Freedom lovers damp in stiff-limbed writhing
Stumbling kisses upon red-barreled bravery,
Softly probing her robust and supple liberty,
Heed now her cries of woeful sovereignty!
I compel you to love your country.
Between her Trail of Tears and Mount Misery
She still waits upon the coupled plains of affection
Ready for our design and mastery of this worlds love
Panting heavy expectation upon her shape.
I compel you to love your country.
Perched upon the shore of Rolles Creek she waits
With Mount Pleasant in reach of her willing fingers.
With expectant sounds of closure now within her folds
She lunges forth with an expectant mouth!
I compel you to love your country.
O! Gentle sleep now beckons to her languid pink flesh
As the rogues tongue laps at her ebbing shores of joy
And beckons her let go of her valuable love’s embrace
Lunging forth behind her eager lips!
She counters not… for she is the boiling hunger we seek.
What a devoted worship we’ve had with the motherland.
Many a great poet has written their songs upon her flesh;
Their bright and shimmering waters lapping her shores
In ardent freedom’s want of hopes howling, dripping heat.
I compel you to love the world!
On this day of days let us remember her youthful glow,
Her ripe fruit of wonder, her drowsy ache of emancipation,
Her most alluring burnish upon our exploring of her skin.
(The burden of immense throbbing now falls upon her heart!)
I compel you to love the world!
America, carry your waves to all shores. Hope, not savagery,
In your goodness, not in impudent desire to control destiny.
Leave not the naked child, but your desire alone on the road.
Shelter not your intentions, but those most needful and hungry.
I compel you to love the world!
We have been witness to our dove, crippled and flailing in terror!
We’ve been onlookers to our expectations emerging fruitless.
Watching unmoved while our oily desire bleeds into the waters
And the cold white eyes of death tread progressively before us.
I compel you to love the world!
Come now, peace. Come now, warriors, lay down your guns
To witness the beauty at your hands as she lays down your sword
And with dripping red lips envelops your craving to possess her.
Do you not hear the night voices calling you with an angels whisper?
I compel you to love the world!
To open the door and step out into the bright sun, desire can wait.
Take notice of the many tender, breathing, soul-caked living.
Gaze upon the world’s most unbendable faith in humanity.
Gently touch her skin, delicately massage her furious soil.
I compel you to love the world!
Enter her sculpting space and weave a covering made of lifeless war.
Paint upon her face a gentle art made of your temples sweat.
Scribe a love song upon her back with the eagle’s most willing blood.
Erect in her a tower of light for all to see that they might weep.
I compel you to love the world!
The masses of age lie here and we should not be so ready to die
Like confused animal’s hooved in selfishness, deficient and artless.
The world is full of freedom lovers damp in stiff-limbed writhing
Stumbling kisses upon red-barreled bravery, tenderly probing liberty.
I compel you to love the world!
Amid her supple lands and majestic mountains she waits our affection,
Ready for our desire and design embracing her most ready warmth
Needing our hot hope upon her shape, wanton as wide-eyed first love.
(Heed now the world’s hot desire for freedom pulling us in.)
With hopeful whisper's within her waters, she leans forth, expectant.
Copyright © 2008, 2007, 2006 mrp/thepoetryman
