I walk the States with a
Barb’d tongue – Questioning²
America is a Great Country –
Everyone else better Watch Out!³
America it is to thee thou boasted land
Of Liberty, it is to thee I raise my song
Thou land of Blood, Crime and Wrong⁴
For Revolting Barbarity and Shameless
Hypocrisy – America reigns without rival⁵
From Sea to Shining Hell Rising up⁶
May Indigestion upset the feast, the
Stomach that Gorges on Cheap Oil,
Blood, and Belief in False History⁷
Americans will always be the
Mortal Enemy of All Races⁸
Our America’s urgent need
Is to Teach itself what it is⁹
How much will the CIA
Pay for a Poet’s Head?¹⁰
¹ Langston Hughes, I, Too
² Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario’s Shores
³ Tina Brown Celona, The Big Day
⁴ John Monroe Whitfield, America
⁵ Frederick Douglass, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro
⁶ Ed Roberson, Noise Complaint
⁷ Laura Hershey, Ill at Ease
⁸ María Ruiz de Burton tr. original, Letter to Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
⁹ Jose Martí tr. original, Our America
¹⁰ Heberto Padilla tr. original, Nuclear Umbrella