“American Fire” … a poem

When I stand before the flag above
With the beautiful anthem spilling love
The most perfect, imperfect majesty
Those stars and stripes call out to me

Sweet melodies flow into drums
Cymbals crash and tension thrums
Each boom and hiss is a squeeze on my shoulder
With the rise of each strain, I grow bolder, and bolder...

Hotter and colder!
Ice into fire
Pride on my skin, I begin to transpire

Heat and pepper
Triumph and glory
Musketballs, cannonshots, all things unholy

Heartbreak and heatstroke
Frostbite and spring
Our country hides away in each of these things

America is fire
America is war
America is glistening waves on the shore

America is hunger for riches and fame
America is courage, grit, and family names
I see her there, in the red and blue
And wonder if she sees me too...


As the anthem keeps chanting my blood runs hot
Dreams of shining seas and timber trees and hair tied up in pretty knots

Opportunity
Equality
The land that's spied by men at oar

Gold rush
River gush
The hope that lies on distant shores

Revolutions
Bold solutions
Reaching for the sky

America
Who never stops
Who will never cease to try...

She calls to me
Like a siren of lore

be brilliant!
be brave!
Be something more.

She calls to me
She screams for me

And this time
For the first time...

I answer.