Hey America –

From your California coasts

To your New York Harbors,

From New Orleans Louisiana

To Michigan and Montana,

From the Rocky Mountains

To your artistic Ann Arbor.

Hawaii left in the middle of the ocean

Swaying gently

Instead of feeling lonely

Showing her own kind of emotions,

Usually warm

Sometimes calm

Sometimes with violent eruptions.

Alaska in your farthest corner

Why do you keep her

So far away,

What did she do,

Did you even allow her

Anything to say?

From your shores to shores

And from the skies up above

To the bottom of your floors.

And everything else in between

That can be perceived and seen,

With all your wonders

The dreams and imaginations

That you are able to trigger!

 

You are so large

With so much space,

So why do some of your children feel

You don’t have room

Or any place

For a few more

Who want to merge

And find shelter in your chest.

Haven’t you always adopted

So many from outside

And let them rest?

Isn’t this one of your prides?

Don’t you have open arms

From which others have tried to learn?

And with your gentle hands

Don’t you always plant

Seeds of hope and freedom?

So why are some of your children

Want to ban

And make it part of your custom

To shut your doors

And close your eyes?

Things I thought you despise.

So can you please ask them to stop

And don’t let them try?

 

You are so colorful and diverse.

So why do some of your children

Feel the urge

To only use one kind of lens

Or to hang out with

Only one kind of friends

Or to channel their mind

In one narrow track?

Why do they lack

The very characteristics that you have

As their mother –

The hills and the valleys

The deserts and the oceans

Flowing rivers

Plains of the prairies

And the vast fields of corn,

Plants and animals so diverse and different

Including the humans

That you nurture and raise –

Shouldn’t all of them be happy and praise

Your generosity

And your intense desire

For your diversity?

How do you feel

When they want you to be

Flat and bland?

Is it even possible

For your kind of land

And with your kind of DNA

That makes you so broad and open?

Can you even

Imagine of being

So narrow and shallow?

Are you going to lend

Your ears to any such Brands?

Are you going to allow

Any such plans?

 

Forgetting your kindness

Why do some of your children

Act like they have a blindness

To see your injuries?

Destroying your beauty

Forgetting their duty

To preserve and protect,

Instead

Resorting to sabotage and neglect,

Killing your environment

Filling you up with trash

Limiting your ability to breath.

Do you feel like

You may be about to crash?

 

I don’t want to make you angry or mad

As I find this pathetic and sad

That some even have this misguided belief

That they own you,

Forgetting your history in the past

That this kind of attitude didn’t last

Or survive

Even with the kings and the monarchs

Who tried to keep you tamed and subdued

But ended up fleeing with their hide

As when it came to freedom

You taught them a lesson

Being very blunt and very rude

Showing them how you keep your pride.

 

I thought you fostered union.

So why do I see so much division

Amongst some of your own children?

Do you even understand

What they sometimes say

And what they mean?

Are you having trouble

Keeping your own head clean?

Do you think some of them may be lost

And what do you think is the cost

To your own family?

Are you going to give up

So easily?

 

Love and harmony

Isn’t it how you wanted to see

They make their journey?

Then why do I see so many

Killings?

And dealings

That you would never approve.

Even stealing

Abuse and misuse of your resources.

How did they end up taking

Such disastrous courses?

Didn’t you watch

Or is it such

That they did not listen?

Does it cause you pain,

Are you going to remain

Silent?

 

Did you teach them wrong

Or did some of your children

Have gone astray

On their own?

Can you please wake up

And may be

Try to be a little bit tough

And teach some lessons

To keep your family together

Saving them from possible destruction.

Or would you rather see

Your own disintegration?

But I don’t feel like

It is in your nature

Or you will tolerate ever

Any such notion or intention.

By –

Kris Mojag

Written with some intense passion in a November evening somewhere in California in 2021.